UG did no wrong in increasing fees & Minister of Education has no authority over fees – Prof. Gyampo

Although the Minister of Education has directed the University of Ghana to reduce its fees to the 15% increment per the directive from GTEC, a member f the University of Ghana Communication Team Pro. Gyampo has indicated that, the directive amounts to being asked to engage in illegality and that the university has acted legally and on the side of the law.

In an interview with Omaru Sanda during Citi’s eyewitness news monitored by GhanaEducation.org, Prof. Gyampo said the UG has followed the approved fees and directive of the Parliament of Ghana in calculating the fees being charged students for the 2022/2023 academic year.

He furthered that, the university did not charge the higher approved fees as approved by parliament in 2019 since the approved fees were received at the tail end of the year. The Global pandemic further prevented the university from charging the actual fees for the 2021/2022 academic year. In explaining the issue, Prof. Gyampo said, calls by students for the university not to charge the approved fees in 2021/2022 further led to the university suspending its actual fees for the year.

Responding to calculations by NUGS, he disclosed that it was possible that the NUGS calculation was based on the lower fees charged from 2019 to the end of 2022 which did not include the 5% increment approved by Parliament since 2019.

In calculating the 15% increment approved by the GTEC, he said, the University of Ghana did no wrong but only did what was required of them since 2019 by using their base fees in 2019 plus the 5% approved which the university never charged plus the new 15% increment approved for the 2022/2023 academic year.

He went on to say other universities went ahead to make the 2019 increments over the period, while the University of Ghana did not until now.

“We used the base rate to calculate the fees as communicated to us by parliament”. Quoting Act 1080 as his legal point of reference, he argued that the only Minister who has been given authority over fees is the Minister of Finance and not the Minister of Education.

“The university of Ghana has done what is within the law and any directive that asks us to do the contrary will be asking us to do what is illegal,” Prof. Gyampo said.

He indicated, further that, the Minister of Education cannot order public universities to do what is illegal. We haven’t done anything that is illegal. He called for the charge of illegality to be dropped.

READ: Comply with 15% tertiary fee increment charges – Education Minister directs UG

He was of the view that if the call for the reduction of the fees charged by the University of Ghana is about affordability due to the current hardship all Ghanaians are going through, then the issue can be discussed and included, but he further disclosed the University has moved from asking students to pay 70% to 50% of their fees to reduce their burdens. The university is also willing to give other flexible terms of payment to students who cannot pay, he added.

According to Prof. Gyampo, the University’s governing council will be holding an emergency meeting and the outcome of the said meeting will be communicated to stakeholders.