Some concerned students of the University of Ghana (UG) on Friday massed up at the Obra Spot in protest of a %40 fee increment.
The agitated students, who were clad in red and black attire, wanted the university management to immediately reverse the “illegal fee” increment.
The students stressed that despite the 15% threshold approved by Parliament based on the Fees and Charges Act 2022 (Act 1080), UG is blatantly disregarding the said directive.
Another pressing issue for the ‘Ya Bre Mo Demonstrators’ is that the UG Management has refused to resolve the accommodation challenge that has plagued the school for some time now.
“We don’t have a place to sleep. Okay, this year, for instance, the school admitted close to 17,000 students, but only 6,000 were offered accommodation. Where are the other students supposed to sleep?
“The school makes the case that most of them are distance students, but even that, let’s say 10,000 are distance students. Where should the rest go? We have students coming all the way from Kasoa, and sometimes lectures end at 9:30 pm. How are they supposed to get home? They are left at the mercy of criminals,” a demonstrator said worriedly.
The protestors also kicked against management’s decision to allow only level 100 students into the Mensah Sarbah and the Commonwealth halls and relocate continuing students to other hostels.
The new directive to reassign the continuing students to other halls comes on the back of numerous clashes recorded between students of the respective halls in times past.
It will be recalled that the UG management further suspended the Commonwealth Hall Master and Senior Tutor following a clash between the Vandals and the Mensah Sarbah Hall, which occurred on August 5.
Management blamed the two hall officials for supposedly being reluctant to fish out the students responsible for the scuffle, which led to the destruction of property on campus.
The students are therefore calling for the reinstatement of the Commonwealth members who were suspended over the clashes.
The demonstrators carried placards which had inscriptions such as “VC Must Go, Build more Hostels on Campus, Practice the Democracy you Preach, and Reinstate the Residents of Commonwealth Hall”.