TESCON condemns fees of the University of Ghana

Accra, Aug. 23, GNA- The Tertiary Education Students Confederacy of the New Patriotic Party (TESCON), Legon branch, on Monday described the academic and residential facility user fees of the University of Ghana, Legon, as an insensitive and indictment on the rights of the poor and a recipe for students' unrest.

TESCON therefore, called on the government and the sector Ministry to step in to prevent a possible student uprising, "which is likely to disrupt the academic calendar".

An official statement issued in Accra and signed by Mr Martin Adjei-Mensah, the President, said the TESCON condemns in no uncertain terms, the increment of both academic and residential facility user fees by the authorities.

"TESCON wish to appeal to the authorities to review the fees immediately to prevent possible disruption of the semester," it added. "In any case, if the fees were determined by the council of Vice Chancellors, would anybody then explain to us why KNUST, which is predominantly a science institution should charge 1.2 million and 320,000 cedis for the academic and residential facility user fees respectively while University of Ghana charges 1.6 million and 640,000 cedis for the same facilities," the statement asked.

The statement said the "cruelty of the authorities was exposed when they made it compulsory for all freshmen and women to a pay a non-refundable deposit of 1.9 million cedis before they would be allowed to register as against 600,000 cedis charged by their counterparts in KNUST".

Continuing students are also asked to pay not less than 1.1 million and 640,000 cedis for the academic and residential facility user fees respectively before they would be allowed to register, the statement added.

It appealed to the students to try as much as possible to use dialogue to resolve the problem rather than the use of "unconventional methods".