Increasing tuition fee should be last resort – UG Pro Chancellor

Mar 27, 2013 News

-public/private partnership a recommended move

“Meeting your expenses or raising the quality of education should not be done on the backs of your students.”
This assertion was made by Pro Chancellor of the University of Guyana, Dr Prem Misir, who insisted that increased tuition fees at the local university should in fact be a last resort.

UG Pro Chancellor, Dr Prem Misir

Dr Misir’s remarks come in the wake of a proposal made by recently appointed Vice Chancellor, Professor Jacob Opadeyi, who touted a tuition fee hike as a means of improving the quality of the institution. While not condemning the proposal, the Pro Chancellor, during an interview with this publication, was adamant that other factors should be considered ahead of such a move.
Even as he acknowledged that the university is “very cash-strapped” and needs a lot of funding, Dr Misir pointed to the fact that while most Governments around the world have cut back on funding to universities, the local Government has not followed this trend.
“If you look over the years, the Guyana Government has increased its subvention to the University of Guyana, but the norm seems to be, over the last three, four years, in Great Britain as well as in the United States for those universities (there) they have had massive cutbacks…and so when you start with that you have very little funding.”
“Perhaps the easiest thing to do is say ‘let’s increase the fees and get some extra cash’ but I do not agree and this is not in disagreement with (Professor) Opadeyi’s position,” Dr Misir categorically asserted.
He further expressed his conviction that students should not be denied access to the university on the basis of that student’s economic background.
“That is what I have always been saying. The tuition fee may or may not have to go up, but we need to look at a lot of factors. We can’t just unilaterally say we will increase the tuition fee because we are cash-strapped and so that will bring in some extra revenue.”
According to the Pro Chancellor, while an increase in tuition will expectedly channel more revenue to the coffers of the university, at the same time such an undertaking could result in the denial of access to some students and “that is not what I want. I think all students should have equal right to admission at the university”.
Moreover, he is convinced that the implementation of the increased tuition fee proposal could inhibit the rights to access, therefore, it is crucial to find other avenues of revenue. “We are cash-strapped, but we have got to find a better way, I think, of dealing with it…” insisted Dr Misir, who pondered over the notion that increased tuition fees will also increase students’ loans.
And since students’ loans cannot be considered a revolving fund, the Pro Chancellor noted that Government’s liabilities will in fact soar.
“If you increase the fees, the loan has to be bigger to meet the increasing fees, so the liability from a governmental point of view would be higher…fiscal deficit will grow and that would create its own problems.”

Vice Chancellor, Professor Jacob Opadeyi

In fact, Dr Misir has embraced a move towards soliciting the support of the private sector whereby a public/private partnership could be forged. This strategic undertaking, according to him, could realise an institutionalised relationship where the corporate world becomes not merely a donor but rather a stakeholder within the University.
“The corporate world has to become a major player in the running of universities now…it is already happening all over the world,” Dr Misir concluded.
Speaking at a recent press conference, Professor Opadeyi had insisted that there is need for an improvement in the quality of education offered at the tertiary institution.
“If you want quality degrees you will pay for it; nobody gets quality for free. If students can’t pay for it somebody’s got to pay for it; either the private sector or scholarships, somebody’s got to pay for it,” he asserted.
He said that money should not be raised through begging, but rather through the services that are being sold. Even as he referred to salaries, Professor Opadeyi stressed that “everything needs to go up, it is a total package. If you want high quality teachers you need to pay high quality salaries.”
As such, he expressed confidence that Government will support the move to up the tuition fee, since according to him “it is common sense. There is no Government service that has not increased its prices in this country…so it is just common sense.”
The only challenge with implementing the tuition change, according to the Vice Chancellor, is the modality, that is, “how we should, not why we should do it, and if Government says we are not going to increase tuition, the University is going to say ‘this is the extra bill you have to pay’….This is the cost of giving that person the quality education that you wanted.”
Head of the Presidential Secretarial, Dr Roger Luncheon has since indicated that renewed discussions on the matter could force Government to make a definitive decision on the matter.