Legon City

On Monday I attended a presentation on the Legon City project. Basically this is a project by the university being spearheaded by the Vice Chancellor to raise money for the university by renting out land to create a business/technology park. The complex which will be 120 acres has all been planned out on computer and all the necessary government and professional organizations have signed on to it. Now the land just needs to be cleared of the squatters currently living on it and investors willing to put up the money need to come forward. The first part will be easy to accomplish. The second part will probably be harder. But, what was most shocking is finding out that the project is being pushed because the Ghanaian government plans in the not too distant future to cut off all funding to the University of Ghana. So the University of Ghana has to find alternative means of funding itself. The renting of land in public (university) - private (providers of capital) partnerships being the most favored way currently. Have any countries completely done away with government funding of public universities before and if they have what was the result? Was it successful? Did they manage to make up all the lost revenue through renting out land to build business centres and technology parks? Any thoughts from anybody?