UL students reject $4 fee increment

Campus-based Student Integration Movement or SIM at the state-run University of Liberia says it disagrees with “illogical increment” of fees per credit hour from L$175 to US$4.00.

Plans to increase tuition and fees at the University of Liberia or UL have over the past time been creating rigmarole between the student population and the administration, resulting to violent protests, disruption of classes and destruction of properties, among others.

In a statement authorized on Monday, 21 March by SIM Chair Ayoubah K. Dulleh and his Secretary General D. Lawrence George, the group cited the university’s lack of sophisticated libraries and laboratories for students to do research to better prepare for future educational challenges.

The opposing students are also citing the lack of well-functioning internet system for students to obtain contemporary information as another ground for rejecting the fee increase. They additionally argued that even if the US$4 increment is sustained, it will not “significantly help the administration obtain the needed US$29 Million,” concluding that “there is no need for increment because their strategy is unrealistic and unproductive.”

“On the other front, the University of Liberia was established by an Act of National Legislature to provide sound and quality education.The Act also seeks among other things to provide affordable education to Liberians. It then means that the university was not founded by our progenitors to maximize profit as it is the case now at the University,” SIM claims. Meanwhile, the UL Administration is expected to address a major news conference today, March 22, on the Main Campus on Capitol Hill.

By Winston W. Parley-Edited by Jonathan Browne