November 18, 2025

Ministry seeks alternative scholarship funds after US cuts

The freeze on foreign aid in the United States has impacted the higher education sector in Africa, including in Cameroon where the government is seeking alternative funding strategies with a shift towards scholarship offers from other countries and donor institutions.

The Cameroon Ministry of Higher Education has said the government had to look at alternatives, asking for increased scholarship openings from Commonwealth scholarship programmes and other partner countries such China, Turkiye, Russia and India to bridge the gap in funding for international studies and to bolster funding shortfalls created by this year’s United States Agency for International Development (USAID) cuts.

“Following cuts in USAID funding, we had to solicit an increase in scholarship opportunities from other friendly countries. We are happy this is yielding fruits and our students are adapting to the changes,” Jacques Fame Ndongo, the minister of higher education, said at a media briefing ahead of the new academic year that started earlier in October.

Ndongo said the USAID funding had been instrumental in promoting higher education in Cameroon, as in other countries in Africa, through collaborations with universities to advance research, community engagement, and capacity-building. He expressed regrets about the setbacks triggered by the cuts.

“The USAID cuts for Cameroon have affected, not only the higher education sector, but also health and other local development programmes,” Ndongo said.

According to a news report, of 43 projects, mainly in the health and education sectors, initially planned for Cameroon in 2025, 32 have been cancelled outright by the new US administration. This represents a drastic reduction of 74%, equivalent to a budget cut of US$51.13 million (approximately FCFA28.8 billion) from an initial budget of US$82 million.

Overhaul of international aid

The shift in US policy aligns with a broader strategic recalibration. On 21 January this year, Washington announced an overhaul of its international aid approach, spearheaded by USAID. The immediate fallout included a 90-day suspension of funding, directly impacting Cameroon. The health sector, including training and research, the primary recipient of US assistance, is experiencing the most significant consequences, the news report said.

According to officials of the Cameroon Ministry of Higher Education, the cuts have reduced educational opportunities, especially for marginalised groups such as girls and women.

“The funding supported initiatives that helped us to improve school infrastructure, especially laboratories for research, provide learning materials, and train lecturers, thus impacting the quality of university education. Programmes specifically targeting girls’ and women’s education, which are crucial for promoting gender equality and broader socio-economic development, were also supported,” Professor Wilfred Nyongbet Gabsa, the secretary general in the ministry, told University World News.

He said, apart from turning to other countries for scholarship opportunities, the government has also been soliciting private foundations for research grants and capacity-building support as well as garnering partnership support within Africa to help Cameroon’s universities become more self-reliant in research and funding.

Scholarships

Most of the 12 state universities have been encouraged to offer more scholarships and research grants to top students.

According to Professor Horace Ngomo, the vice-chancellor of the University of Buea, the number of student beneficiaries of scholarships and grants offered via the university has increased as a result of the foreign aid squeeze.

“Research grants are crucial to foster innovation and so we have stepped up the number of students benefiting from funding opportunities,” the vice-chancellor told University World News.

“The University of Buea offers a variety of scholarships and fellowships designed to help students and their families pay for university. Scholarships and grants are types of gift aid that do not have to be repaid. They may take the form of university scholarships, or research state grants,” the university states on its webpage.

Students have also been encouraged to look to other countries like the UK, Canada and China for higher education scholarship opportunities and to visit the ministry’s for announcements about university scholarship opportunities.

A student site dubbed CampusJeunes also offers to help students seeking scholarships abroad to access available opportunities.

“There are many scholarship opportunities up for grabs. Students should regularly visit the website of the ministry of higher education for information. Meanwhile, we encourage students to also make individual efforts and those who merit it will certainly find openings elsewhere,” Ndongo said at the briefing.

Meanwhile, private university officials say the cuts have also affected the private sector, especially in health research, climate change and agriculture projects that were receiving support.

“Private universities have been doing a lot of partnership work in health research in areas like malaria and emerging diseases, thanks to funding and essential health interventions,” Dr Nick Ngwanyam, a surgeon and founder of the St Louis Clinic and University Institute, told University World News.

He said that, through the Higher Education Solutions Network of USAID, funding in health research areas was previously available.

Ban on non-governmental organisations

The funding cuts have not only resulted in a reduction in international scholarship opportunities, but also funding for research and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that support higher education training in Cameroon.

Civil society officials say the situation in Cameroon has also been aggravated by the Cameroonian government’s restrictions on foreign aid to non-governmental organisations.

“Universities have been getting support for research work from NGOs. But these opportunities have been considerably cut following recent restrictions on foreign funding by the government,” Dr Augustine Njamnshi, executive director of the African Coalition for Sustainable Energy and Access, or ACSEA, told University World News.

Njamnshi was referring to the ban announced last year by Cameroon’s Minister of Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji, of five NGOs accused of funding terrorist activities in the country.

According to media reports, the announcement sparked outrage among civil society organisations, which called for a reversal of the suspension, which they described as “incomprehensible”.

Some NGO experts say such funding restrictions also limit research funding opportunities from NGOs to university students. In Cameroon, many NGOs, such as the Cameroon Initiative for Research and Innovation, or CIRI, and the Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry or CIFOR-ICRAF, inter alia, provide research scholarship opportunities for university students.

A recent report by University World News highlighted the opportunities for researchers and students in the region provided by the work of CIFOR and ICRAF in partnership with a European Union research project known as RESSAC (French for Research in Ecology and Social Sciences) which supports the sustainable management of Central Africa’s forest ecosystems.

However, the funding restrictions to NGOs by the government are limiting these opportunities, experts say.

“Our CIFOR-ICRAF RESSAC programme, this year provided opportunities for 27 postdoctoral fellows from different universities in the Central African Congo Basin forest region. These researchers, through their work, improve the living conditions of the population, protecting and restoring forest resources.

“However, restrictions on funding for NGOs will only go to limit the number of student beneficiaries of these research opportunities,” Dr Abdon Awono, a senior forest scientist at CIFOR-ICRAF, told University World News.

These restrictions, academics say, have negatively affected higher education institutions that depended on support from NGOs in areas of research and infrastructure development.

“These restrictions and the control of NGO funding have reduced support for university work that has been promoting educational quality, sustainable development and innovation, especially in research. Research students from the University of Yaounde II increasingly find it difficult to get funding for their research work,” Dr Christopher Nsoh Ndikum, of the University of Yaounde II, told University World News.