MONROVIA, LIBERIA — Liberia’s struggle to produce a modern, competitive workforce will remain difficult to overcome unless the government makes a sustained investment in the University of Liberia, according to CENTAL Executive Director Anderson Miamen.
Writing Friday, August 21, 2026, Miamen said the repeated crises at the university should force policymakers to examine why the institution continues to operate below the standard expected of a national public university.
His argument is that Liberia has spent years responding to the visible consequences of the university’s problems while failing to confront the financial and institutional weaknesses that continue to produce them.
Miamen said the University needs far more than emergency interventions whenever students or faculty members protest. He called for a long-term national strategy to rebuild the institution’s infrastructure, expand technology and internet access, improve classrooms and create an academic environment capable of preparing students for a changing labor market.
He placed inadequate government financing at the center of the university’s difficulties.
According to Miamen, the institution’s budget has increased only marginally over the years despite growth in Liberia’s population and the university’s responsibilities. The result, he argued, has been a widening gap between what the institution is expected to deliver and the resources available to it.
The CENTAL head also questioned the priorities reflected in national spending.
He argued that government has repeatedly demonstrated an ability to mobilize substantial resources for political offices, official residences, vehicles and other high-level government activities, yet continues to struggle to provide what he considers adequate and sustainable funding for the University of Liberia.
For Miamen, the contrast raises a fundamental question about national priorities: if government can find resources for politically important projects and officials, why can it not demonstrate the same urgency toward the country’s premier public university?
He said the problem extends beyond one administration, arguing that successive governments have failed to make the university’s transformation a genuine national priority.
Miamen did not dismiss concerns about corruption or management at the institution. Instead, he argued that those issues should be addressed alongside the larger problem of chronic underinvestment.
He also rejected violence as a legitimate response to institutional disputes but said government should recognize why students and faculty repeatedly resort to protests, work slowdowns and other pressure tactics.
In his view, unresolved grievances create a predictable cycle: government intervenes when tensions become severe, the immediate crisis subsides, but the underlying problems remain and eventually produce another confrontation.
Miamen said Liberia now has an opportunity to break that cycle, citing recent revenue collection gains reported by the Liberia Revenue Authority.
He urged policymakers to use increased fiscal space to strengthen critical public institutions, with the University of Liberia receiving serious consideration for additional investment.
He emphasized that financing should be paired with stronger accountability, institutional reforms and a clear development plan.
Miamen’s central warning is that Liberia cannot expect the University of Liberia to produce highly skilled graduates and professionals capable of driving national development while leaving the institution to operate with inadequate infrastructure and insufficient resources.
He called for government to act deliberately and decisively, saying only a sustained effort to address the university’s underlying weaknesses can prevent the same crises from repeatedly resurfacing.
