'Stress Free' Should Mean Poor Students Too: Why Gov't Must Review the Tertiary User Fee Policy

On August 5, 2026, on Joy FM’s PM Express Show with Evans Mensah, NPP communicator, Dennis Miracles Aboagye, raised a hard truth that many families across Ghana have been whispering in hostels, market stalls, and WhatsApp groups: the Government’s Tertiary Stress-Free Academic User Fees policy, as it is currently implemented, is missing the very people it was meant to help — the poor.

His point was simple and devastating. The policy works by refunding academic user fees that students have already paid. But what happens if you are so poor that you cannot raise the money to pay in the first place? You are locked out.

If a policy designed to ease the burden of tertiary education only refunds those who could afford to pay upfront, then it is not "stress-free" for the poor. It is stress-free for the rich and the middle class. And that is a problem we must fix urgently.

The Intention Was Noble. The Execution Has a Gap

No one disputes the good intention behind the policy. Tertiary education is expensive. For many parents, paying admission fees, tuition, and other charges at the start of the semester means borrowing, selling assets, or pulling other children out of school.

The government’s decision to absorb these fees and refund students was meant to remove that pressure. It was meant to say: "Go to school. Don’t worry about the fees. We’ve got you."

But here is the gap Mr. Aboagye highlighted: you must first have the money to be refunded. A poor student whose parent sells kenkey, drives trotro, or farms in a village may not have GH¢3,000 – GH¢6,000 to pay fees in September, with the hope of a refund months later. So they defer. They stay home. They give up.

In effect, the policy has created two classes of beneficiaries: those who can "pre-finance" their education and get paid back, and those who cannot pre-finance and therefore get nothing. That is not equity. That is exclusion.

Who Is Really Benefiting?
Let’s be honest about how this plays out in reality. The child of a banker, a lawyer, or a business owner can have their fees paid by parents in August. When the refund comes, it goes back into the family account. It is a welcome relief, but it was never a matter of "go to school or stay home."

The child of a widow in Bunkpurugu, a fisherman in Elmina, or a head porter in Accra does not have that luxury. For them, the inability to raise the initial fee is the end of the road. No payment, no admission. No admission, no refund. No refund, no school.

So while the policy is being implemented across all public tertiary institutions, its benefits are being skewed. The middle class and the rich, who already had the means, are being reimbursed. The poor, who needed the intervention most, are still at the gate.

That is the paradox Mr. Aboagye put on national radio: a "pro-poor" policy that requires you to not be poor to benefit.

The Real Cost of Inaction
This is not just about money. It is about opportunity and national development.

When a brilliant but poor student misses admission because of fees, Ghana loses a potential doctor, engineer, teacher, or entrepreneur. We lose talent. We deepen inequality. We tell an entire generation that your background determines your future.

We also undermine the very goal of expanding access to tertiary education. Government spends billions on infrastructure, GETFund, and student loans, yet if the first hurdle — paying fees at registration — is too high, all the other investments mean little.

The stress the policy was supposed to remove has simply been moved. From "how will we pay and wait for a refund" to "how will we pay at all."

A Call for Review: Make It Truly Stress-Free for the Poor

Government must review the implementation model. The goal should not just be to refund fees. The goal should be to ensure no qualified Ghanaian is denied tertiary education because they cannot pay upfront.

In the following three practical steps, the government can successfully review the implementation of the policy to benefit the poor.

In the first place, the government should leverage existing data on qualified students to identify students who cannot afford their fees and pay for them upfront. Detailed information of the parental background of these students with the National Identification Authority (NIA) may help.

The identified students can then be issued with fee vouchers or waivers at point of admission. With this, the school can bill the government directly. This removes the burden from the student and the parents entirely.

The government can also consider creating Emergency Tertiary Access Fund. With such a revolving fund, the schools can draw from to admit students who show up without fees but qualify under needs-assessment. Refunds can then replenish the fund instead of going to individuals.

These are not new ideas. They have worked in health and basic education. What is required now is political will and administrative restructuring.

This Is About Fairness, Not Politics
This call for review is not an attack on the policy or the government. It is an appeal to get it right. Every government wants to leave a legacy of expanded opportunity. But a legacy is only meaningful if it reaches the last person in line.

As Mr. Aboagye noted on PM Express, we must ask ourselves: who is this policy truly serving? If the answer is "those who could have managed anyway," then we need to go back to the drawing board.

The poor do not need a refund. They need access. They need the stress removed before they get to the school gate, not months after.

Conclusion: Let Stress-Free Mean Everyone
Tertiary education is the great equalizer. It is how a child from a poor home becomes the first graduate, the first professional, the first to change their family’s story.

The Stress-Free Academic User Fees policy has the potential to be one of the most transformational interventions in education. But only if it is implemented in a way that puts the poorest first.

Government, please review this policy. Restructure the payment flow. Close the gap between intention and impact.

Let "stress-free" not be a slogan for those who can already afford it. Let it be a reality for the market woman’s daughter, the farmer’s son, and every brilliant Ghanaian child whose only barrier is money. Because when we educate the poorest, we lift the whole nation.

The Author is an Information Officer, a regular contributor to News Commentary, a current affairs programme by the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation and a columnist with Modern Ghana, an esteemed online news portal

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