Student Funding in Ghana University of Oslo
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STUDENT FUNDING IN GHANA From the Perspective of Students in Non-Traditional Study Programs BEATRICE ATUBGA MASTER OF PHILOSOPHY IN HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTE FOR EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH, FACULTY OF EDUCATION UNIVERSITY OF OSLO AUGUST 2016 © Beatrice Atubga 2016 Student Funding in Ghana: From the Perspective of Students in Non-Traditional Study Programs Beatrice Atubga http://www.duo.uio.no/ Trykk: Reprosentralen, University of Oslo II STUDENT FUNDING IN GHANA From the Perspective of Students in Non-Traditional Study Programs BEATRICE ATUBGA Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the Degree of Master of Philosophy in Higher Education Institute for Educational Research, Faculty of Education UNIVERSITY OF OSLO AUGUST 2016 III Dedication First and foremost, I wish to dedicate this work to my God Eternal, the one who’s enduring loving presence has been my strength and who has been my provider throughout this master program. Again, this master thesis is dedicated to the following people who have unconditionally sacrificed a lot for this dream to see the light of the day: My super loving God sent husband, Mr Samson Ayinizuoya Atubga My ever loving mother-in-law, Mrs Margaret Amooro Atubga My two adorable angels, Samuel Tartepae Atubga and Deborah Ougemy Atubga My ever patient and understanding thesis supervisor, Professor Peter Maassen Finally, to every single person who has contributed in one way or the other to see me through to this far. IV Abstract The importance of funding in HE cannot be underestimated. The presence or other wise of it can set the stage for rippling effect on every other area of this enterprise. It is in light of this that the current generally acknowledged decreased in government budgetary allocation to HEIs is seen as worrisome since the state remains the major financier of HE in most countries especially developing countries. To make up for the shortfall in funding as a result of the decrease in government budgetary allocation, HEIs have sought to find innovative alternative sources of funding their activities. Students have been seen as one of such major sources since they are generally acknowledged as one of the major benefactors of HE. A number of measures have therefore been taking to make students contribute financially in this regard and one of such measures is the introduction of non-traditional study programs (NTSPs) in HEIs. These programmes are funded entirely by student fees without any sponsorship or subsidies from government budgetary allocations. The primary objective of this master thesis was to look at student funding sources from the perspective of students in NTSPs using students of CEMBA/CEMPA programme at KNUST as the object of my study. The analysis was made drawing on the concepts of planning and social capital. The bonding, bridging and linking social capitals as identified by Woolcock (2008) were used whiles looking at the obligations and expectations of members in these social groups. Armed with this, the research made the following assumptions that: students usually plan way ahead before applying to these programs, students plan and use sources of funding that are easily accessible and that will not leave them heavily indebted after graduation, and students prefer “appreciative obligations and expectations” towards their sources of funding. Questionnaires, made of mostly closed ended questions aided to answer the research questions of the study. The findings indicate that, in the absence of scholarships, grants and loans, students in NTSPs still successfully financed their studies drawing on resources from the three types of social capital stated above. These sources were said to be easily accessible and will leave students with little or no debt after graduation. The study also confirmed that, students preferred “appreciative obligations and appreciations” to financial obligations and expectations towards their sources of funds. V Acknowledgement While acknowledging the singular doing of the Lord in bringing me this far, I also reckon God used so many people in the process to accomplish His purpose in my life. This therefore is as a result of decades of unconditional sacrifices, support, love, encouragement, and motivation from countless people I was privilege to have come in contact with. To this end, I am grateful to my thesis supervisor, Professor Peter Maassen for his insightful contributions, criticism and direction in giving this work the quality we see now. I can never forget the ray of hope that bubbled up in me anytime I spoke to you regarding this work. God richly bless you Sir. Again, I am sincerely grateful to my parents, Mr Martin Bilson (late) and Mrs Emma Bilson, who did not only see the need to give their children opportunity to education, but, gave equal opportunity to us the girls at the time this was very rare in the Northern part of Ghana. Still, I will not be writing this if my aunty, Mrs Victoria Ntesen Sakara (late) had not given expression to this opportunity at the time it became obvious my parents could not continue as much as they would have loved to in this regard. I am actually a benefactor of bonding social capital in the true sense of the word and cannot forget the sacrifices of all my brothers and sisters in their own right in seeing this dream come to fruition. I am particularly grateful to my elder brother Dr Francis Bitasimi Bilson who believed in me that much to have given me the web site of University of Oslo to apply for this programme and followed it up with encouragement, motivation and financial support. I am also grateful to Philip Dawon Bilson, a Research Fellow at the Kintampo Health Research Centre who helped with the data collection in the savannah zone. I am equally most grateful to my husband, Mr Samson Ayinizuoya Atubga and our children Samuel Tartepae Atubga and Deborah Ougemy Atubga for their sacrifice in this journey. Also a heartfelt gratitude to my mother-in-law for the care of my family all this while I was away. I wish to acknowledge the staff of IDL of KNUST with special mention of Mr Anthony Adjapong, the Assistant Registrar of IDL, KNUST, Mr Emmanuel Opintan-Baah and Mr Foster Frimpong not forgetting students of the CEMBA/CEMPA programme for their support during the fieldwork. VI My heartfelt gratitude goes to Joshua Sarpong for being a true friend, brother and colleague in this journey. The same can be said of Enoch Kofi Nyarkoh. My special thanks to the academic staff of this master programe and Kristi Barcus and Elken Mari - program coordinators for their unrelenting support. All I can say is, God richly bless you all for your sacrifice and contribution in this journey. VII Abbreviations CEMBA Commonwealth Executive Master of Business Administration CEMPA Commonwealth Executive Master of Public Administration CZ Coastal Zone FZ Forest Zone GHC Ghanaian Cedi HEIs Higher Education Institutions IDL Institute for Distant Learning KNUST Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology NAB National Accreditation Board NTCs Nursing Training Colleges NTSPs Non-Traditional Study Programs PHEIs Public Higher Education Institution SCFR Social Capital Financial Resources SZ Savannah Zone TSPs Traditional Study Programs TTCE Teacher Training Colleges of Education VIII Table of Contents STUDENT FUNDING IN GHANA ........................................................................................ III Dedication ................................................................................................................................ IV Abstract ..................................................................................................................................... V Acknowledgement .................................................................................................................... VI Abbreviations ........................................................................................................................ VIII Tables and Figures .................................................................................................................. XII 1 CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION OF THE STUDY ................................................... 1 1.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 1 1.2 Background to the Study ............................................................................................. 3 1.3 Problem Statement ....................................................................................................... 4 1.4 Objectives of the Study............................................................................................... 6 1.5 Research Questions...................................................................................................... 6 1.6 Significance of the Study ............................................................................................. 7 1.7 Limitation of Study ...................................................................................................... 7 1.8 Structure of Thesis ....................................................................................................... 9 2 CHAPTER TWO: BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT OF THE STUDY ..................... 11 2.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 11 2.2 Funding Journey In Higher Education ....................................................................... 11