OH UG, WHAT IS THIS?

The University of Ghana is in the news this week for two reasons; the bad and the good. The good is in relation to the dismissal and suspension of some students who sexually assaulted Amina. I have heard a lot of debate on that subject and my candid opinion is that, the university has the authority to sanction its student for breaching any rules of the university. Criminal or moral/immoral does not matter here. The courts can go ahead to declare the actions of the students 'HOLY' once such an act is unacceptable on a university campus, the university can apply its own sanctions to ensure students treat people as human beings.

The bad is on the 50% increase in hostel fees. 50%? No! This is unacceptable. Even if it is an increase on GHc 2.00, it will give GHc 3.00 which is still high to a lot of Ghanaians today. I doubt if the university considered the classes of people in the university and their income levels. When I was in the university, my parents virtually had to go for loans to pay my fees. Six (6) years on, we are still paying some of these loans. My SSNIT loan is still bloating with pressure from guarantors. To think that my younger brother is also in the university going through the same processes is enough headache.

This is to say that some people can pay 200% increase and will not feel anything at all. In the case of others like it was in my case, even 10% increase at any point will be hell. Is it compulsory that fees must increase at the start of every academic year? Parents need to plan on their wards' education in the long term. If fees will increase arbitrarily every academic year, how can parents plan? If it is compulsory to increase every academic year, there must be a stable per centage of increase so that parents will factor this per centage of increase into their planning. 5 - 10% increase is acceptable but 50% is UNACCEPTABLE.

I did not intend to bring politics into this write up but in today's Ghana, it is difficult to depoliticise some of these actions in our institutions. The National Democratic Congress (NDC) believes in social democracy where all citizens live to enjoy what they all work to benefit so it is expected that at a time when citizens are complaining of general hardship, fees will be kept at their current state untill the economy improves. Until this is done, any increase in fees will bring untold hardship unto the citizenry especially the already poor and under paid workers. We may be growing a society where only the rich can access quality and/or tertiary education.

The University of Ghana, Legon authorities should look at the dicision again and reduce the fees to the barest minimum so that the poorest in society can manage. The actions of the university should not contradict the promise of the NDC government to give a BETTER GHANA in which education will be accessible to the poor and rich alike. The decision to increase the fees by this huge per centage is unacceptable.

The other universities should take a cue from this current happenings and avoid any such arbitrary increase in fees that will cause student agitation. Negotiate with your students and ensure acceptable per centage increase.