Some students of the MountCrest University College in Accra have accused school authorities of blackmail and extortion.
According to the aggrieved students, each of them has been asked to pay GHc3,500 to cover retrospective increment in tuition fees from 2017 academic year, cost in running a standby power plant, and administrative cost among other charges.
A letter cited by Citi News confirmed the amount being charged.
[contextly_sidebar id=”LbE8fW52wogeqN3JObIZxz6atzOjlvDP”]One of the affected students who has finished his law degree and is seeking to gain admission to the Ghana Law School, on condition of anonymity told Citi News not only is the fees unfair, but the period allocated for them to pay is also unrealistic.
He wants authorities in the education sector to intervene in the matter.
“Students paid GHc1, 000, only for us just yesterday, about six days more for the close of admission, we had the shock of our life as another notice came in which stated that we are supposed to pay GHc3,500″.
“From the notice, they claimed that for two years they’ve not reviewed our fees and for that matter; they’ve realized that expenses have been incurred and they were supposed to add it, but out of oversight they couldn’t [increase our fees] so GHc2,500 is supposed to cater for surplus expenses.”
“And they are saying that GRA has written to them that they are owing a debt of about GHc490, 000 and in order to defray that every student is being levied GHc1, 000. So in addition to the GHc2, 500 which they are saying are incidental expenses that accrued out of their negligence not to have increased our fees; so GHc3, 500 in all, and they’ve given us up to Tuesday to pay,” he added.
Meanwhile, authorities of the school have refuted the claims.
Student leaders of the school said they will meet the school’s academic board to discuss the issue.
MontCrest sues NAB
Mountcrest University College in 2017 sued the National Accreditation Board for placing an embargo on fresh admissions of students into law programmes at the school.
On June 13, 2016, a Joint Quality Monitoring and Verification Panel of the National Accreditation Board/General Legal Council (NAB/GLC), visited Mountcrest and concluded that the student/staff ratio was beyond the acceptable level and directed the school to revise it before January 31.
But the University at the time contended that before the January 31 deadline, public notices appeared in national newspapers and social media announcing that NAB had placed an embargo on fresh admissions into their Law programmes at the school, adding that the board deprived the university the opportunity to rectify the situation.
The school also accused NAB of not having any legal basis for taking such a decision against it. These issues have since been resolved.
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By: citinewsroom.com/Ghana
