A planned demonstration by some students of the University of Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS), Ho, over management’s sudden decision of not taking care of costs involved in their vocational training during this semester’s break has been called off.
UHAS Local President of the National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS), Isaac Kwame Yeboah Osei, indicated that the demonstration was called off after the Regional Police Commander informed him of President Akufo-Addo’s visit to the region today, Monday.
The aggrieved students, mainly those in their third year, were planning to protest against school management over what they have described as unfair treatment.
According to them, although they have paid an amount of GHC 462.00, which was included in their tuition fees, for their clinicals, management, in what appears to be a surprise move, says it will not take up the cost.
“There was some new development with regards to an already existing one, in connection to our vocational training. We have paid for a service and there was a component binding on management.
What we were expecting management to do, like in previous years, was to provide us with the service, but three weeks into our vocational training and we received message from management that a part of the original agreement has been revoked.
In that, there are not going to provide with with feeding and transportation, and they have extended the one month period to a two month vocational training programme, Isaac Osei said.
In an attempt to address the concerns of the students, school authorities had an open forum with them on Friday, April 10, and promised to convey the message to the Vice-Chancellor of the University.
Although the students were promised of a response from the Vice-Chancellor by midday today, the students insist on staging a peaceful march and to present an official petition to the Vice-Chancellor.
“To embark on a peaceful demonstration, we wrote a letter to seek permission from the office of the Registrar and copied the Vice-Chancellor and last week, we had a meeting with management. So, even as we await for a response from Senior management, we also ever ready to embark on a peaceful demonstration.
Isaac Kwame Yeboah Osei, in an interview with UniversNews as monitored by Successafrica.info, also lamented over management’s disregard for the students, although they were a major stakeholder in the matter.
He insisted that the students body should have been consulted by management before such a decision was take.
We believe that University management has been unfair to us. Our SRC was not involved and there wasn’t any open forum or stakeholder meeting between management and students to discuss this new development.
The Local NUGS President also mentioned that he would have a meeting with the Police later today to agree on a new date for their protest.
“There will be a rescheduling. As a matter of fact, I will be in the Regional Police Commander’s office today to reschedule our protest”
UHAS students accuse authorities of charging unapproved fees
This is not the first time students of the Institution are accusing management of taking a decision without their input.
At the commencement of the first semester of the 2018/2019 academic year, some students of the University had accused authorities of charging unapproved fees.
According to the students, the governing council of the school has added new components to tuition fees and has also increased some charges of the fees without parliament’s approval.
