Immediate past General Secretary of the National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS), Julius Kwame Anthony, has argued that public tertiary institutions increase fees over shortchanged and delayed subventions from the government.
According to him, universities are at a cross road where managements are pushed to choose between quality education and affordability.
Speaking on the morning show of MX24TV, he explained that over three months delay in release of these funds affects the running of the schools.
“As I speak to you, there has been a delay in the release of subventions. Some universities three months, others six months. They don’t get them. So we are supposed to choose between quality of running our institutions and the cost of running them. So when these things happen, the fundamental way of funding tertiary has been affected,” he said on January 2, 2023.
In a bid to alleviate the challenge, Anthony Julius proposed a collaborative efforts between government, universities and NUGS.
“It means that ordinarily, If GET Fund was getting 100% of it amount, the universities should be getting about 700 million. They have been shortchanged by over 500 million because GET Fund has been capped and realigned. What will the universities do if this shortchanged happens? As NUGS, as universities and as government, we all owe a collective responsibility to each other if we want a sustainably driven education, access and affordability. Because if the universities had access to these monies they were supposed to be getting, they wouldn’t be inclined to increase fees at the rate at which they are increasing them,” He added.
Tertiary educational institutions were directed by the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) to increase their fees by 15%, a decision kicked against by some student groups.
NUGS has argued that the increment if implemented will have a toll on its members, fearing that majority of them will drop out of school.
The Graduate Students’ Association of Ghana (GRASAG) rejected the 15% increment arguing that, “GRASAG members all over the country have been hit hard by the economic downturn, and an increase in university fees, we believe will exacerbate the situation”.
Meanwhile the Minister of Education, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, directed the University of Ghana to comply with the 15 percent fee increment as approved by Parliament.
The directive comes on the backdrop of a meeting with the management of some public universities and the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) on Thursday, January 5, 2023, over agitations against the increment of fees.
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Story by: Eli Djomekou | univers.ug.edu.gh
