Business leader and Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast (UCC), Sir Sam Jonah, has cautioned that universities that continue to rely heavily on government funding risk becoming obsolete, urging higher education institutions to adopt sustainable, value-driven models.
Delivering the keynote address at the installation of Professor Denis Worlanyo Aheto as Vice-Chancellor of UCC on Saturday, August 1, Sir Sam said the era of depending on state subventions to finance universities was no longer viable.
“The public purse that built this University can no longer sustain it, and no government—of any party—will change that arithmetic soon,” he said.
He warned that institutions waiting for increased government support were effectively planning their own decline.
“A university that waits for subvention is a university planning its own funeral, with a very fine brochure.”
Speaking on the theme, “We Hold the Pen: The University in the Age of Answers,” Sir Sam argued that universities must transform themselves into institutions that generate value, create wealth and equip graduates with practical, market-ready skills.
According to him, universities should no longer see themselves as dependent on government funding but as innovation hubs capable of generating their own income through research, enterprise and industry collaboration.
“But notice: the university I have described is not a beggar,” he said.
“A university whose students run real fish farms, real energy installations, real enterprises, is a university with revenue, patents, industry partners at the gate, and grateful alumni. The doer university funds itself.”
Sir Sam cited Professor Aheto’s achievements as evidence that such a model is achievable. He noted that under Professor Aheto’s leadership of a university centre, more than US$30 million had been mobilised for the institution, over 400 scholarships secured, more than 50 PhD candidates trained, and the centre transformed into an Africa Centre of Excellence.
“Imagine a whole university built on that principle,” he said.
The UCC Chancellor also pledged his personal support for the university’s transformation, promising to lead fundraising efforts to help realise the vision.
“I pledge to lead from the front—and I will be knocking, without shame, on the doors of everyone in this hall. Consider yourselves warned.”
Charging the newly installed Vice-Chancellor to pursue bold reforms, Sir Sam said Professor Aheto’s appointment should mark the beginning of a new era of innovation rather than administrative continuity.
“I did not come to Cape Coast to install a caretaker. Caretakers polish inherited furniture. I came to install a founder.”
Concluding his address, Sir Sam urged the university to embrace the opportunities presented by artificial intelligence rather than fear technological change.
“The old model of the university is passing. A new one is waiting to be built. Someone will build it. Let it be built here, by us.”
