Ghanaian PhD students in UK reject High Commission’s proposed oath-taking exercise

The leadership of Ghana Scholarships Secretariat-sponsored PhD students in the United Kingdom has rejected a proposed oath-taking exercise announced by the Ghana High Commission in the UK, describing it as discriminatory and unnecessary.

The exercise is intended to affirm the students’ commitment to return to Ghana after completing their studies in the UK.

In a statement issued on Friday, August 7, the student leadership said it was concerned about the decision to introduce the exercise, arguing that beneficiaries had already signed bond forms committing them to return to Ghana after their studies.

“We are aware of our annual progress review, which the Ghana Scholarship Secretariat (GSS) undertakes to validate, assess our members’ progress and renew their scholarship letters,” the statement said.

It said the review had traditionally been conducted through students responding to questions from an academic panel and providing evidence of previous scholarship award letters and academic progression records.

“Due to the geographically sparse nature of universities across the UK, these exercises were largely carried out remotely by the GSS Accra office in conjunction with the Education Liaison Officer in the UK,” the students said.

They therefore questioned the decision by the Ghana High Commission to organise a physical oath-taking exercise at unspecified locations across the UK.

“Therefore, it is strange that a letter is originating from the Ghana High Commission on social media asking students to attend an oath-taking event at unspecified locations in the UK,” the statement said.

The students also raised concerns about delays in the payment of tuition fees and stipends, alleging that several beneficiaries had been left without their statutory payments for months.

“We find this development to be a deliberate effort by the management of the scholarships to delay the statutory payments of students’ tuition fees and stipends, which have been in arrears for several months,” they alleged.

The student leadership further questioned the application of provisions in the Ghana Scholarship Authority Act, 2025, to students whose scholarships were awarded under the former Ghana Scholarships Secretariat.

“We note with concern the consistent reference to Section 31 of the Ghana Scholarship Authority Act, 2025, a recent regulation that was not in effect at the time the scholarship letters were awarded to our members,” the statement said.

According to the students, all conditions governing the progression and renewal of their scholarships, as well as requirements for their eventual return to Ghana, were already contained in their scholarship award letters and bond forms.

“The issue of our members returning to Ghana is clearly captured in the bond form we signed before the scholarship letters were awarded,” they said.

The students also disputed the Ghana High Commission’s interpretation of Section 11 of the Oaths Act, 1972 (NRCD 6), which they said did not specifically require sponsored students in the UK to swear an oath before a diplomat.

“We categorically reject such misrepresentation of the Oaths Act because the said regulation does not state that sponsored students in the UK must swear before a diplomat,” the statement said.

The student leadership further described the proposed exercise as discriminatory, arguing that other Ghanaian students in the UK who are beneficiaries of scholarships administered through the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) and Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) had not been included.

“We find the High Commission’s letter discriminatory, particularly given that there are other Ghanaian students on the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFUND) and the Ghana National Petroleum Commission (GNPC) scholarships who are equally studying in the UK, but have not been included in this proposed oath-taking exercise,” they said.

The students consequently advised their members to boycott the exercise until their concerns were addressed.

However, they stressed that they were not opposed to measures aimed at strengthening scholarship administration.

“Our members can only participate in this oath-taking exercise after the itemised points below have been made explicitly clear in the oath and fulfilled entirely,” the statement said.

Among their demands are a clear timeline for the payment of all outstanding tuition fees and stipends, an assurance that students would not be required to return to Ghana until the payments had been fully settled, and guarantees of appropriate reintegration into the Ghanaian labour market after their studies.

They also demanded that each student be given a completed copy of any document signed during the exercise.

The students further called for the validation process to be conducted online to reduce costs.

“In the spirit of frugality, we call on the management of the scholarships to minimize expenditure and ensure that the state does not incur any ancillary cost in the validation process,” they said.

“To that end, we suggest that the validation process be reverted to the online submission of forms through Google Forms to save cost.”

The students said their financial difficulties made it difficult for them to attend a physical validation exercise.

“We wish to inform the Ghana High Commission that since our members have not received their statutory allowances for several months, we are unable to transport ourselves to any venue for such a manual validation exercise,” the statement said.

They further alleged that some students had been evicted from their accommodation as a result of the financial difficulties.

“Since most of our colleagues are now homeless due to eviction from their accommodations, we believe that a more efficient way to validate the award letters should be through an online form system,” they said.

The student leadership also raised questions about the scholarship authority’s reported issuance of Letters of No Objection (LONO) to students seeking two-year hands-on work experience in the UK.

They questioned why such letters continued to be issued when the Director-General of the Ghana Scholarship Authority had reportedly criticised the arrangement on radio and television programmes.

“Why is he also issuing the same letter to students who have completed their studies, if it’s not right and beneficial?” they asked.

The students also questioned reported arrangements between the scholarship management and some UK universities concerning tuition fee payments.

“Why is the management of the scholarship and the High Commission on an agreement for a 10% tuition fee payment for students in universities such as the University of Nottingham and Birmingham if they are unaware of sponsored students in the UK?” they asked.

The leadership urged the Ghana High Commission and the Ghana Scholarship Authority to provide clarity on the proposed oath-taking exercise, outstanding scholarship payments and the conditions governing students’ return to Ghana.