IPS students seek government’s intervention on increase in fees

The Students’ Representative Council (SRC) of the Institute of Professional Studies (IPS) has appealed to the Government to absorb the 10 per cent increment on academic user fees to lessen the financial burden on students.

It said even though IPS was a full-fledged public tertiary institution, it charged exorbitant fees, making most of the students to constantly either defer their courses or fail to graduate because of lack of means to settle the fees.

Mr. Hayford Baah Tawiah, President of SRC of IPS, who made the appeal at a press conference in Accra on Tuesday, gave government a week’s ultimatum to respond to the issue or students would advise themselves.

“If we do not see any positive action from government by the end of this week, we would call for students to hold on with the payment of the fees and would fully cooperate with them on whatever they want us to do while operating within the laws of the Institute and Ghana”, he added.

Mr. Tawiah said the situation had become so alarming that as at the end of last semester, 50 per cent of students could not pay their fees adding “I and other executives have to encourage so many students to marshal the necessary courage to continue, although some drop out anyway”.

He gave the annual range of fees as GH¢872 for diploma, GH¢1,188 for degree and GH¢1,430 for weekend students.

The SRC President said due to low level of government’s support to the Institute, Management was compelled to bill students for projects such as libraries, washrooms, lecture halls, halls of residence among others, all of which contributed to the “sky-rockecting” nature of the fees.

“Cost of transportation in and out is also high and most students often get to campus late and very tired because they do not have residential facilities on campus. Where are we heading? Exactly what mistakes have we committed?” he asked.

Mr. Tawiah argued that the country’s constitution guaranteed a progressive free education for all asking “or are we not Ghanaian students who deserve a fair share of the educational cake”.

He said: “In this 21st Century, it would be ignominious to see Ghanaian students drop out of school basically because of exorbitant fees and urged government to take full responsibility of the Institute as it does for other public tertiary institutions because it adopted it (IPS) also as one of them”.

Mr. Tawiah urged management to develop more flexible terms of payment of the fees as well as “let the students know exactly what they are being charged for and the breakdown of the fees into components”.

He called on all well-meaning Ghanaians including Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, Asantehene, an alumnus, to come on board to fight and make education affordable and accessible to all.

Mr. Wonder Madilo, President of National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS), said the situation on campuses of most tertiary institutions was “gradually becoming suppressive in a democratic dispensation”, school authorities not accountable to students.

He said NUGS would no longer tolerate actions by school authorities that sought to suppress students.

Mr. Madilo noted that despite the high fees, school facilities continued to deteriorate adding, among others “we continue to stand for lectures”.

Mr. Abubakar Abdul-Fatawu, Treasurer of Ghana Union of Professional Students, said the cost of education at professional institutions was too high to afford as per the current economic conditions.

Most of the students on campus during the press conference wore red arm bands in solidarity with the SRC.

IPS was adopted in 1978 as a fully-fledged public institution and later granted a full-fledged university status in 2009 to award its own degrees following the signing of a Presidential Charter by the Government.

Source: GNA