Education Minister directs UG Management to comply with 15% school fee increment directive

Gideon Nicholas Day
Gideon Nicholas Day
4 Min Read

The  Minister for Education, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, has ordered the University of Ghana (UG) Management to abide by the 15 percent increase in tertiary fees approved by parliament.

This directive was made after the Ministry of Education met leaders of all public universities on the tertiary fees controversy on Thursday.

The Ghana Tertiary Education Council (GTEC) ordered all public tertiary institutions to increase fees for the next academic year by a maximum of 15%.

However, some University of Ghana students claim that the school’s administration is charging more than the approved rates for the 2022 /2023 academic year.

According to the Ministry’s findings, UG is implementing a fee increase of around 37%.

The University announced that it will consult with its Council to discuss the 15% increase and whether or not the school could adopt it.

We have also heard from the University of Cape Coast about fees that they have taken in cases where fees were over 15%, they are doing refunds. They want to move within the 15% as mandated by Parliament so i am very happy this morning,” Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum told the media after the meeting.

A Post by PRO of the Education Ministry

In a related development, the President of the University of students association of Ghana, Christian Anderson speaking to Univers news on the matter said the Ministry of education should direct universities to refund the balance of the fees to students who paid more than the parliament-approved fees.

For those who have made payment already, there should be directives on how refunds can be made for them to get back the money they have spent in a wrongful manner because the government that is the body for making these laws has stated it is 15 and that should be adhered to.

However, a professor at the University of Ghana and a member of the University of Ghana’s Communication team  Prof. Ransford Gyampo, maintains that the University of Ghana fees review was legal.

Speaking on Thursday’s edition of the World at 2, Prof. Gyampo said, “The directive was for us to boost the rates by 15% beyond the already approved fees.”

University of Ghana didn’t charge because approval came very late.we have explained time and again that there was a certain approved fee way back in 2019 that UG didn’t charge.  The next year that we wanted to charge the approved fees, our students came to plead with us that there is Covid and so we should defer that.

“Maybe  the next time government is asking us to charge a 15 percent increment over the approved fees, lets look at which approved fees we have, and based on that we calculate the 15 percent.” He added.

The University of Mines and Technology, the University of Education, Winneba, and three additional public universities have all complied with the regulation on fee charging.

Story by  Gideon Nicholas Day | univers.ug.edu.gh

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