The Graduate Students Association of Ghana (GRASAG) has expressed concern about the non-payment of research support grants for graduate students, often known as bursaries.

According to the Association, despite the fact that grants play an important role in supporting graduate students’ research activities, the release of these monies has been postponed for two years.

It noted that the situation had caused difficulties for many graduate students and had a bad influence on the broader academic community.

Claudius Angsongna, President of the University of Ghana Chapter of GRASAG, has thus urged authorities to address the matter.

“As it stands, we haven’t heard anything; no one seems to care about graduate education in Ghana. When you look at PhD students, sometimes depending on what you’re researching on you spend as much as 30,000 Ghana cedis. You need to go to the lab, you need to go to the field, and you have to do that for one whole year.”

“We’re going to liaise with all other institutional heads, then we’ll organize a press conference and a demonstration. That’s our next line of action,” he added.