We Will Report Universities Who Have Illegally Increased Their Fees – NUGS

The National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS) has said in press release that any attempt to increase fees in public universities above 15 per cent, will amount to contempt of court.

In a statement issued by NUGS, Friday, 23 December 2022, the union expressed worry over any form of fee increment.

It explained that: “On 16 December 2022, the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission wrote to all stakeholders setting the threshold for any increment to 15%.

“This was done in line with Fees and Charges (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 2022 (Act 1080) with the reasoning that fees had not been increased in the last 3years with some institutions submitting increment proposals over 100% to Parliament.”

The union disclosed that the “approval is applicable to all Public Tertiary Institutions (Public Universities, Technical Universities, Colleges of Education) under GTEC.”

It indicated that: “any attempt to increase fees above the stated threshold will be a contempt of Parliament.”

According to NUGS, it held a meeting on Tuesday, 20 December 2022, with GTEC “aimed at efforts to deal with the surge in fees and other related issues.”

The union expressed worry over “any increase regardless of the percentage but hold strong resentment against any attempt to increase fees above the 15percent approved by parliament.”

It noted that it had sighted “several instances of undue increment in fees beyond the threshold, with some going as high as 50 per cent.”

It described the attempts to outrageously increase Residential Fees as “illegal.”

The Union, therefore, called on all institutions who “have illegally increased fees beyond the threshold to immediately reverse such increment.”

It added that it will prepare a report to publish the names of such institutions and “take every legal and reasonable means to correct such injustice on Ghanaian students.”

This comes on the back of an increase in fees by public universities across the country. They believe that some universities are overcharging fees.