Public institutions that charged more than the 15% permitted fees have been requested by the Ministry of Education to reimburse the extra money that students paid.
In response to complaints that several institutions, including the University of Ghana, were charging more than the permitted rates, the Minister of Education, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, met with the administration of various universities and the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) on Thursday.
The Ministry of Education's Public Relations Officer, Kwasi Kwarteng, stated in an interview with Eyewitness News that "anyone who paid more than the permitted tuition should have his or her money restored, and the University officials agreed to this."
If you charge someone more than the permitted fee of 15% per charge, it is only right that you issue a refund.
The public relations officer responded, "We don't believe it will reach to that stage," when asked what penalties will be applied to universities that don't follow the instruction.
The Ministry reminds them to adhere to the regulations based on this, he continued, adding that the universities have laws that govern their operations and should notify them about how they charge their tuition.
In a similar event, Prof. Ransford Gyampo, a member of the University of Ghana's communications team, maintained that the university did not impose higher tuition rates than had been reported on social media.
We (the University of Ghana) have in our possession ACT 1080, the Act of Parliament that specifies the base rate we should use in determining our 15%, he said. The University of Ghana calculated their 15% using the base rate that was conveyed to us by Parliament.
The University of Ghana's argument for raising its fees for the academic year 2022–2023 has been criticized as unfair by the National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS).
The Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) ordered tertiary schools to raise their tuition by 15%, a move that was opposed by a number of student organizations.
The student organizations think that the public tertiary schools increased the fees by a larger margin than was necessary.