IPS Students Issue Ultimatum to Govt

credit:Cari Dighton

Students of the Institute of Professional Studies (IPS) have threatened to boycott studies should the government fail to come to their rescue by helping slash down their tuition fee to an affordable rate.

“If we do not see any positive action from government by the end of this week, we will call students to hold on with the payment of the fees. At all times, citizens of a nation are supposed to make certain sacrifices when the need arises. However, IPS students have made more than enough sacrifice over the last five years or so.

All that we get in return is government taking our leniency to be our weakness,” noted Hayford Baah Tawiah, President of the Students’ Representative Council (SRC), when he addressed a news conference in Accra yesterday.

The Academic User fee, according to the SRC President has since last year been increased by ten percent. Students pursuing degree programs are now paying between GH ¢1,400-1,188 – depending on their class load, whilst Diploma students are paying GH 872 each year.

This, the student contend, was making life unbearable and, therefore, pleaded with the government to take full responsibility to absorb the ten percent increase, in order to lessen the burden on them.

“What we are saying is this, that the government adopted the Institute, and for that matter take full responsibility of its actions,” Mr. Tawiah said.

IPS attained full University status in September 2009, following a grant by a presidential charter from President John Evans Atta-Mills. As the only public institution that trains for both professional and degree qualifications, IPS blends both academic and professional content in its curriculum.

The few government assisted projects that are currently under construction at the school, according to the student body, began in 2005 and was surprised that till date none has been completed.

Among such projects are the administration block and the lecturer’s office complex on the IPS campus.

Mr. Tawiah also emphasized that other facilities such as libraries, wash rooms and halls of residence would have to be paid for by increasing students’ fees, if the government fails to intervene on their behalf. He said the students have resorted to deferring their programs, since the prevailing economic conditions, coupled with other problems were having a rippling effect on them.

“The rate at which students defer their programs keep increasing at an alarming rate semester by semester,” Mr Tawiah said, adding that “Close to 50 percent of the total student population have not paid their fees for last semester.”