The Students’ Parliament of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) has attributed the inability of some 6,000 students to pay their academic facility user fees to the protracted strike by the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) that marred the beginning of the semester.

This comes on the back of a directive by the management body of KNUST asking students, who did not pay 70 per cent of their academic facility user fees, as required by the university, to defer their courses.

Reacting to the directive, in a statement, on Wednesday, 21 April 2022, the Students’ Parliament described the decision by the management as “harsh” and “inconsiderate.”

According to the Students’ Parliament, “the University Relations Office and various forms of student communication did a poor job of informing students about the policy’s requirements”.

“Except for an impromptu flier with a little portion of the policy captured on it, no extensive measures were taken to address Students on this issue.”

It continued: “We can’t address this problem without taking into account the disruptions to the academic schedule caused by the UTAG strike, which has caused students to stay and spend longer than they intended before returning to campus.

“We must keep in mind that some students are self-parenting and may be obliged to spend on their tuition fees as a result of the extended academic calendar.”

It also appealed to the management body, especially, the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Rita Akosua Dickson, who they described as a ‘listening mother’, to reconsider the decision to have students defer their courses.

“At a time like this, all we seek for is an extension of the time to next academic year. This, they have done before, and we know, as listening leaders as they have always been, they will consider this, too”, the students noted.

“It is our hope that swift action be taken to reverse this action within the shortest possible time to give students the concentration and all the attention they need to sit for the end of semester examination.”

Some 6,000 students of the KNUST’s 85,000 population are to defer their courses for their inability to pay their schools fees in full.

The university announced that students who owe more than 70 per cent of their school fees were to automatically defer their courses by 7 April 2022.

Despite the affected students having been allowed to sit their mid-semester exam which started on 11 April 2022, those who still had not paid up after the first exam week were forced to defer their courses.

The University Relations Officer, Dr Daniel Norris Bekoe, said on Wednesday, 20 April that there was the need to “apply the fees policy this year which has been approved by the academic board and it is required that as an undergraduate student you must register your courses at the beginning of the semester and pay 70%.”

Despite a three-month window – February to April – for students to fully pay up their arrears, Dr Bekoe said: “A number of students are playing games with the University”.

“For example, they use their school fees to buy Uber; others are setting up bakeries…while others are using it for betting, and we have evidence,” he told Accra-based Joy FM.