Education Minister directs universities to charge fees within 15%

The Minister of Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, has urged all universities to review their academic fees to within the 15 percent as approved by Parliament.

There were recent agitations by student leaders that some universities were charging higher than the 15 percent approved by Parliament for the 2022/2023 academic year.

This raised tension at some campuses.

The University of Ghana, one of the institutions accused of charging higher fees, justified the recent increment and said it was within Parliament’s approval.

Legon justifies 2022/23 fees as legal

On Thursday, January 5, the Minister of Education held a meeting with senior members of the universities including University of Cape Coast (UCC), University of Ghana, Legon (UG), University of Education, Winneba (UEW) and University of Mines and Technology (UMaT).

Dr Adutwum told journalists after the meeting that each university was given the opportunity to explain the rationale behind the recent reviews.

“We heard from University of Education, Winneba, we’ve also heard from our great university, University of Cape Coast, about steps that they have taken.

“In cases where the fees were over 15 percent, they are doing refunds. They want to live within the 15 percent as mandated by Parliament, so I am very happy this morning.”

Meanwhile, a Professor at the University of Ghana, Ransford Gyampo, insists the premier university’s fees review was within law.

“The directive was for us to increase the fees 15 percent over the already approved fees,” he told host Martin Asiedu-Dartey on TV3‘s Midday Live on Thursday.

“And we have explained time and again that there was a certain approved fees way back in 2019 that UG didn’t charge. UG didn’t charge because approval came very late. The next year that we wanted to charge that approved fees, our students came to plead with us that there is Covid and so we should defer that.

“So the next time government is asking us to charge 15 percent increment over the approved fees, we are required to look at which approved fees we have and based on that we calculate the 15 percent.”