CVCP proposes increase in user fees

The Committee of Vice-Chancellors (CVCP) has proposed an upward review of the academic and residential facility user fees of the country's public universities.

The revised fees, which the committee proposed for the 2000/2001 academic year was presented to the National Council for Tertiary Education (NCTE) last March.

According to the Daily Graphic, the proposals compared the academic facility user fees for the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Tecnhology (KNUST) and that of the University of Ghana.

For the new rates per student pursuing undergraduate courses, the CVCP recommended a 30 per cent hike in academic facility user fees.

For Science, the CVCP proposed an increase from ?430,000 to ?570,000 for the KNUST, while it recommended an increase from ?460,000 to ?598,000 for the University of Ghana.

As regards the humanities, the CVCP recommended an increase from ?290,000 to ?380,000 for KNUST and for Legon, it proposed a rise from ?320,000 to 155416,000.

The CVCP proposed an increase of ?650,000 to ?850,000 and the same rate for Legon per student pursuing Medicine.

The proposals said graduate students are charged 1.5 per cent times under-graduate fees. Justifying the need for the upward reviews of the academic facility user fees, the CVCP said the current levels of the fees were set in 1998 and have not been revised to date, in spite of changes in value of local currency and the general rise in cost of operation of the universities.