Latest update April 25th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jul 01, 2014 News
By Leon Suseran
The final round of consultations of the University of Guyana (UG) at the Berbice Campus on Friday, saw students voicing their rejection towards the proposed increase of tuition at the facility. Vice-Chancellor (VC) of the tertiary institution, Professor Jacob Opadeyi could not have appeased the large student gathering and even gave several explanations for increasing the
$127,000 annual tuition to $200,000. Several outbursts from the audience during the question and answer segment hammered in the position of the students that they were not in support of an increase.
In his address Opadeyi stated, that if students want to demand a higher quality of service and education from the University, then the only option is to raise the fees. It is a matter, he noted, of “how do we ‘price’ ourselves; how do we price our degree; how do we price our lecturers?” He underscored, too, the contributions of the Government to the facility, as he denounced the opinion that Guyana is a poor country. “It is all about what is our priority in developing human minds of our society.”
The VC stated that for too long, UG has had a “human face” to its students by not asking for an increase for decades, “and for us collecting US$1,000 from you and for us allowing you to pay your tuition fee two weeks before exams….and to let you go and write exams and pay for the other exam after you have written it.”
He questioned how long the University could continue to operate like this, describing it as one of the reasons that the university has been operating in the ‘red’ for many years. He noted that the $127,000 per year tuition fee (which excludes Law and Medical students) currently paid is “the cost for teaching one course—just one course—so where will the other money come from?”
Speaking about the annual Government subvention, the official alluded to it not being sufficient, especially since the amount is repeatedly reduced by the relevant agencies after the University submits its work programme to the Government. “We are not going to be shooting ourselves in the foot and then they will be laughing at UG and saying it is bad management.” He then showed the gathering tuition fees of other Caribbean universities which are higher than that being paid at University of Guyana.
He linked higher tuition fees to better quality of teaching and services around the campus such as cooler and more comfortable classrooms. “So my heart goes out to all the lecturers who have been holding down this University for the last seven years.”
“The tuition is so low that the student cannot come and complain that this room is too hot—you can’t even complain that you have no paper to print this, but when you start paying for quality, then you demand quality.”
But students rejected the entire idea. One student argued that, “We are not receiving crap here. I mean, you can’t blame us or the lecturers that our University is not being recognized. That is the only problem with Guyana. Our University is not recognized! The few courses we do here – the course content, they are up to date with world standards, because if you compare what we are doing here and what they are doing there, it is equal and even higher, so I felt offended when you said that we are receiving crap here!”
Professor Opadeyi told the students that a higher tuition fee can mean e-library services for them at the Berbice Campus, to which a student responded, “We have that service here!” He then responded by asking, “All of them [the books]?” to which the student advised, “Go and check— not all the books but we have it!”
“If you compare us to other countries around the world, have you looked at what we earn in Guyana and compare it to what is earned around the world?” argued another student.
Prof. Opadeyi responded by advising not to focus on “what we earn…let us raise the bar,” but he could not get the students to agree with him on that point.
Government, he added is covering more than 54 per cent of the operational costs of UG, “and the tuition is less than 50 per cent of our cost and tuition is not something you play with…it took 20 years for this University to say, ‘hey, let’s do something about the fees’.”
He further opined that if UG had been increasing their tuition by 5 per cent each year since 1994, “we would not have been in this mess.” However, Opadyei did not suggest that the students bear all of the financial cost of their studies, but rather that Government step in as is done in other countries.
“Are we bold enough to turn this University around, or will we work with what we have—are we ready to make sure our students have that international policy that they are looking for?” he questioned.
A third- year Public Management student opined that the VC and his team, “came with a pre-conceived idea and that is not fair to us.” “We should have been given an input earlier – he is set on what he wants to do and we don’t have anything to say…so I feel that we are not being treated fairly….you cannot just come and implement something like that—it is not fair!”
Another student argued, “We are not even getting good service, but we have to pay for it, so if we are going to get higher service, we would still have to pay!—we are not even working for US$1,000 so how can we pay US$1,000—you’re not catering for people at a low level, you are just catering for people who are rich here….but you need to understand….”, argued another student.
President of the UG Senior Staff Association, Dr. Patsy Francis reiterated the need for the increased tuition. “I will not advocate that all of the money which is needed to run the University must come from student fees, but surely, an investment in your own education has to become priority—and when you take a loan, you have got to pay it back. How are other people going to come? And how are we going to achieve this dream?”
She noted that if it is costing UG more than $300,000 to train a student, “surely a contribution of $200,000 cannot be too much—I trust that the loan agency will be on board to give the loans; I trust that when the monies are realized, that our long-suffering staff will receive increases in emoluments and encouragement…so that we can move this University forward and achieve our dream.”
The consultation ended as many persons walked out of the meeting, dissatisfied about the notion of increased fees.
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