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

This comes on the back of an increase in fees by public universities across the country.

In a statement issued by NUGS on Friday, 23 December 2022, the union expressed worry over any form of an increase in fees.

The union explained: "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 the Fees and Charges (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 2022 (Act 1080) with the reasoning that fees had not been increased in the last three years, 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: “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 holds a strong resentment against any attempt to increase fees above the 15 per cent approved by parliament.”

It noted that it had sighted “several instances of undue increments 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.”