Low university fees in Sierra Leone spark subsidy debate

University tuition fees in Sierra Leone remain heavily subsidised despite growing public sector strain

Tuition fees for university courses in Sierra Leone remain significantly lower than the actual cost of delivering tertiary education, largely due to long-standing government subsidies, a discussion among education stakeholders has revealed.

The conversation, led by a university lecturer—a contributor to an internal communication on tuition and public finance—highlighted confusion around whether listed fees were charged annually or covered the entire programme. “Sorry, I may have missed it, but are these fees annually or per term/semester?” one participant asked. The Lecturer clarified that, “Annual O– for those that are annual. Those over multiple years, [na] for the whole course O.”

The exchange prompted suggestions for greater transparency. “Can I suggest that you kindly convey the message to those responsible to include a note/comment in the notice to indicate/clarify both which courses are annually or over multiple years and that the published fees cover the entire course duration,” one respondent said.

Some expressed disbelief that multi-year programmes were priced as flat sums. “Gosh, so even for a course that spans two (2) years, that is the fee for the entire period?” another participant asked, reacting with concern over what they perceived as underpriced academic programmes.

Addressing the surprisingly low tuition figures, he explained: “Yes, university fees na Salone are far lower than the actual cost of university education. Thing is governments, since time immemorial na Salone [day] heavily subsidize university education—most people, be they on grant-in-aid or not, pay far less than 50% of the actual cost of [dem] university education.”

He added that this long-standing subsidy model places a significant burden on public finances: “It’s a heavy toll on governments O—and which is why I often tell my students—una look, government day spen pa una pass all other categories of youth na de country—una day take more of society resources—government, fambul dem en more, so u na for gee back more.”

Despite widespread poverty, the lecturer also noted that formally educated individuals in Sierra Leone tend to be the most critical of national development. “Yes, even in all this poverty, the formally educated done take more—but oh ya, na from dem back we kin geh the greatest condemnation of everything ma Salone—almost like dem day say, to them that hath more, more rotten talk is expected.”

In response to the sustainability of such a subsidy-heavy model, another participant urged broader systemic reform. “Cheers—maybe it’s up to you (the power brokers) to put pressure on the Govt to develop a plan that redresses this imbalance between public sector revenue generation and its expenditure, to reduce the dependency on donor funding & remittances.”POSTGRADUATE FEES STRUCTURE APPROVE 2025-2026 PDF