The University Students’ Association of Ghana (USAG) has described as insensitive the rate of increment in public university fees.
According to USAG, some public universities have gone ahead to release provisional school fees for the 2022/23 academic year with fees increased beyond the approved rate by Parliament.
USAG says due to the current economic conditions the increment could result in students dropping out of school.
A statement signed by the president of USAG, Dr Christian Ntsiful Anderson said any attempt by universities to increase fees above the approved percentage will be strongly resisted by students across the country.
“Our checks from GTEC and Parliament indicate that there has been a 15% maximum increment
across the board, as approved by parliament for university fees from the previous academic year. Every
attempt to increase this will be strongly resisted by our students. This has begun with our students
strongly expressing their displeasure over the past week on the various social media platforms.
“While at this, some public universities like KNUST, UCC and the University of Ghana among
others have gone ahead to release provisional school fees for the 2022/23 academic year with very
high percentage increments.
“We acknowledge the economic difficulties that we are currently facing as a country, and we acknowledge Government’s swift response in seeking economic restructuring with an IMF program however, we cannot collapse our education system due to the situation that we find ourselves in, as this will only continue the poverty cycle in this country and make our economic prospects worse by the years.
“Our biggest concern with this release is how short the notice on the payment has come, and how difficult it will be for most of our students to continue their education.”