Prof. Yankah Warns Public Universities Against Increasing Fees

The Minister of State in charge of Tertiary Education, Prof. Kwesi Yankah, has warned management of the various public universities not to increase school fees for the 2020/2021 academic year.

Speaking to Citi News on the sidelines of the “Transforming Teacher Education and Learning Program” by the National Council for Education, Prof. Yankah said the recurrent increase in fees is worrying.

“I was rather surprised and abhorred about the arbitrary increases which appear to be recurrent almost every year,” he said.

He further reminded school authorities that, any increase in fees without parliamentary approval would be unlawful.

Prof. Yankah stressed that public universities have been “been clearly told about the need to rout any increases they envisage to Parliament because of the Fees and Charges Act which requires them to do so.”

The Ranking Member on the Education Committee of Parliament, Peter Nortsu-Kotoe, for example, said the Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ) had not sent any proposal to Parliament on a proposed 5 percent fee increment.

He also said he did not expect the universities to be complaining about fees given the expected increase in intake because of the Free SHS graduates.

“This an academic year which is receiving an avalanche of students; more than 50 percent more than the regular intake, and we are expecting a movement from about 90,000 to 145,000 [new admissions].”

“This is likely to be a major economic bumper harvest for universities,” Prof. Yankah said.

The concerns over the increase in fees have led to protests from some students.

A group known as the Concerned Tertiary Students of GIJ, for example, protested against increment of fees by some tertiary institutions in the country.

The group expressed fears some students would drop out of school due to the increment of the fees for the 2020/2021 academic year.

The group noted that “The Ghana Institute of Journalism and the University of Ghana are facing a 5% and 12% respective fee increment for the upcoming 2020/2021 academic year with hints of the increment from other tertiary institutions.”

---citinewsroom

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