In Ghana, private higher education institutions’ (PHEIs) share of gross tertiary enrolment is on the decline in the midst of growing demand for tertiary education. Whether this is, an indication of PHEIs in Ghana becoming endangered species in the higher education space has received limited research attention. Through documentary reviews and interviews of purposively selected 22 key informants, including Presidents, Vice Presidents, Registrars, Finance Officers of PHEIs and Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) Academic Auditors, this study investigates the viability and sustainability of PHEIs in Ghana. Resource Dependency Theory guided the study. The emerging issues, which relate to dynamics of students’ enrolments, funding, affiliation policy, staffing and innovativeness provide indicative realities of short-term viability and long-term sustainability of PHEIs in Ghana that make them appear endangered species. The study concludes that PHEIs in Ghana are vulnerable with respect to their short-term operational viability and long-term sustainability which make them appear endangered species with a plausible implication of heightening the pressure on the public purse to expand and or establish more public HEIs in order to meet the ever-increasing demand for higher education.

在加纳，随着高等教育需求的不断增长，私立高等教育机构 (PHEI) 占高等教育总入学率的比例正在下降。无论是否如此，加纳的 PHEI 在高等教育领域成为濒危物种的迹象受到的研究关注有限。通过对有意选择的 22 名关键知情人（包括 PHEI 的总统、副总统、注册官、财务官员和加纳高等教育委员会 (GTEC) 学术审计员）进行文件审查和访谈，本研究调查了加纳 PHEI 的生存能力和可持续性。资源依赖理论指导了这项研究。这些新出现的问题涉及学生入学动态、资金、隶属政策、人员配置和创新性，这些问题提供了加纳 PHEI 的短期生存能力和长期可持续性的指示性现实，使它们看起来像是濒临灭绝的物种。该研究的结论是，加纳的公立高等教育机构在短期运营可行性和长期可持续性方面很脆弱，这使它们看起来像是濒临灭绝的物种，这可能会增加公共资金的压力，以扩大和/或建立更多公立高等教育机构以满足日益增长的高等教育需求。