Ghana’s largest student body has expressed disappointment at some public universities whose academic fees are beyond the acceptable amount to be paid by students.
According to the National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS), these public universities have taken advantage of the 15% increment of fees approved by Parliament to overcharge students.
The NUGS President Dennis Appiah Larbi-Ampofo told JoyNews that these increments have left students very unhappy. Ampofo noted that the Union will not accept any unapproved increment.
He said, “the University of Ghana has increased its academic user fees for some departments by over 40%. To make matters worse, they have increased residential facility user fee to about 70% and in some situations 100%.”
He stated that KNUST has also increased fees by over 90%.
Mr Larbi-Ampofo continued that “UCC is also deeply involved, with some increment crossing 25%. As we speak, UCC Faculty of Social Science has increased its fees at a rate of 27% .”
“University of Mines and Technology is also doing the same with increment as high as 40%,” he said.
Meanwhile, the University of Education has also charged its freshmen an increment of 40%, while graduate fees have in some instances, increased up to 40%.
Parliament recently approved a 15% maximum increment in university fees from the previous academic year.
On the back of this, some universities have released provisional fees for the next academic year with very high percentage increments.
The NUGS President said that these institutions “blatantly flouted the provisions of Parliament.”
Mr Larbi-Ampofo stressed that the Union will not look on unconcerned for students to start paying such fees for the new academic year.
SOURCE: Myjoyonline.com
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