Aspiring University of Ghana Student Representative Council (UGSRC ) President, Martin Agbefia has petitioned the University of Ghana Management to consider repealing the additional online teaching support fee to be paid by students.
This comes after students at the university were introduced to the online teaching support fees, which was a fee imposed on all public universities by the parliament.
The fees, which amounted to Ghc 100.00 for the University of Ghana, was announced only two weeks before the school reopening without prior notice for preparation on the part of students.
In the petition dated April 19, 2024, the aspiring SRC president outlined some reasons he deemed cogent in reneging the additional academic fee action.
According to him, students were not given any prior notice about the increase, and the timing of the imposition was inappropriate, among other objections.
Speaking to Univers News, he made more emphasis over the inappropriateness of the fee imposition.
“The approach was wrong, and we have to stand up and speak against this. I’m not saying the fee is illegitimate or illegal. And I’m not saying the fee is too high or too small. What I’m saying is, the approach in which they used to introduce the fee is wrong,” he said.
“There was no prime notice to the student body. They’ve not respected the student leadership; the people we’ve elected to represent us. The fee has come at the wrong time. Their timing is wrong in the middle of an academic year.”
Martin Agbefia also called on the student populace to rally behind his concerns, also calling on the current SRC executive body to take up the matter seriously.
“I will not even urge any student to go ahead to make any payment as a leader. And I want the SRC executive to take this very serious because the notice were not served. They were not informed about any incoming fee so we should take this very seriously. We should not wait for the amount to be 1,000 today before we all stand up.” he stressed.
As tensions and uncertainties grow, students eagerly await a response from the university management on whether the fee will continue to be implemented.
Find below Martin Segbefia’s petition to the UG management.
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Story by: George Dwumfour Boateng | univers.ug.edu.gh
