Private university students appeal for equal opportunities
The Private University Students Association of Ghana (PUSAG) has justified why students in private universities should enjoy equal opportunities as their counterparts in the public universities.
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It cited fundings from the GETFund, double taxation and delay in granting private universities charter as some of the areas they described as “discriminatory and adversarial” policies against students in private universities.
“The GETFund is a public trust set up to provide funding to supplement government’s effort in the provision of educational infrastructure and facilities within the public sector from the pre-tertiary to the tertiary level.
“In essence, private university students and their families are subsidising or providing financial support for, public universities,” a petition signed and presented to the Ministry of Education in Accra yesterday, by PUSAG’s National President, Mr Benjamin Panlogo-Logodam, stated.
GETFund
The association, therefore, petitioned President John Dramani Mahama, through the Ministry of Education, to enable the GETFund to allocate some of its resources to the development of private universities.
PUSAG argued that private universities enrolled over 30 per cent of tertiary education students in the country, “And therefore, at least, 30 per cent of the GETFund allocated to the tertiary sector should benefit private university students.”
“We are equal citizens under the law, and our votes count in the same way as votes of students in public universities,” the association emphasised.
Taxation
On taxing private universities, PUSAG described it as “double taxation” stating that government was taxing private university students and their families and also taxing the private universities that were providing quality education to students, “the generation that will transform the face of Ghana’s economy.”
“This naturally increases the cost of providing education to the youth. It reduces the funds available to private universities to build campuses, purchase equipment and award scholarships. Ultimately, it is the parents and sponsors of private university students that suffer when it comes to paying tuition fees,” the petition explained.
The petition concluded, “We, therefore, wish to petition your high office to quickly reverse the 25 per cent corporate tax being painfully paid by private universities or reduce the tax burden to 10 per cent to mitigate the plight of students, who end up paying additional tuition and facility user fees.”
Charter
The petition also appealed to the President to ensure that private universities that were due for charter were granted that status to give them their autonomy.
The petition noted that the current situation where private universities were affiliated to public universities had provided the public universities the opportunity to “exploit” the private universities by “levying expensive affiliation fees.”
PUSAG wondered why some private university colleges, which were fairly old and qualified for autonomy, were not granted charter, yet, “a few years ago, two public universities were established,” even with structural and administrative challenges were quickly given autonomy.
Receiving the petition on behalf of the Minister of Education for the President, the Deputy Minister of Education in-charge of Tertiary Education, Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, commended the leadership of PUSAG for the peaceful way they had conducted themselves.
“This is good and in the spirit of democracy. We all want to improve on the quality of education, make it more acceptable and equitable for all our citizens,” he told the leadership of PUSAG and assured them that the ministry would study their petition seriously and would get back to them within one week.
Police presence
The police administration deployed about 80 officers to ensure that the intended demonstration of the association was peaceful.
The intended demonstration brought out only the executive of PUSAG, contrary to the about 500 members they had earlier told the police.
“We did not want to leave anything to chance, so we prepared to contain a demonstration of about 500 students,” the Regional Operations Commander, DSP Freeman Kumashie told the Daily Graphic.
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