Education Minister To Meet UG, KNUST over school fees increments

• Education minister Dr Yaw Adutwum will be holding a meeting with public universities to resolve a brouhaha that followed increases in public universities' academic user fees
• The ministry of education has said KNUST, UG, Cape Coast University and other public universities will be at the meeting scheduled for January 5, 2023
• The meeting will seek to address concerns that some of the public universities have increase 2022/2023 academic facilities user fees above the Parliament-approved 15%

Following agitation over increases in the academic user fees at some public universities the government, through the ministry of education, will intervene.

Education minister Dr Yaw Adutwum has tabled a meeting with the management of the University of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), University of Cape Coast (UCC) and others on Thursday, January 5, 2023.

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University of Ghana justifies 15% increment in academic user fees for students saying they are based on approvals by Parliament

The agitations over the increase in academic user fees at the public universities concern claims by some members of the public that some universities have charged more than the 15% approved by Parliament.

For instance, the National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS) has said some public universities have set academic user fees for the 2022/2023 academic year by about twice the rate approved by Parliament.

NUGS president Dennis Appiah Larbi-Ampofo said a press conference last week that some universities have reviewed their fees upwards by between 30% and 50% of the previous fees for the current academic year.

Spokesperson for the education ministry Kwasi Kwarteng the minister will into the concerns that some of the public universities have gone against the approved fees by Parliament during the meeting.

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UG increases academic user fees by 15% for 2022/2023 academic year

“When Parliament, the legislative arm of government makes a decision backed by law, and we have a university that goes contrary with the decisions, the other question is ‘what happened to compliance’?” Kwarteng told Citi News.

He said Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) will also be in the meeting. GTEC is a state agency that regulates some of the activities at universities in Ghana.s

University of Ghana Justifies 15% Increase in 2022/2023 academic user fees

Meanwhile, YEN.com.gh has reported in a related story that management of the University of Ghana has said the upward review in academic user fees are legal and consistent with Parliament's directive.

The university explained that although the 15% increase are for the gazatted fees for the 2019/2020 academic year, for three consecutive years it only charged students subsidised fees for the 2019/2020, 2020/2021, and 2021/2022 academic years.

According to the university, the gazetted approved fees for the 2019/2020 academic year were higher than what it had earlier requested students to pay for the academic year, hence the university decided to suspend the implementation of the new fees until the next academic year.

Source: YEN.com.gh