Two students of the University of Ghana have initiated steps towards petitioning the school to refund part of their tuition and residential fees paid for the 2019/2020 academic year amids the closure of school due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a brief message dispatched on the 14th of May, 2020 and being circulated on social media with an attached Google forms link inviting the general student populace of the University to sign the petition to add solid backing to the petition that will be presented to the University and relevant stakeholders for consideration of fees refund to students.
The lead petitioners, Kojo Danquah, a first year Master of Public Administration student of the Graduate School and Sampson Tagbor, a level 300 student of the Business School among other reasons stated that "the agreement for academic tuition and residency of the University of Ghana had with students prior to admission and registration are hinged on the invaluable face-to-face lecture delivery by lecturers, social contact and academic interactions among students and direct access to the University's facilities like the Science Labs, Computer Labs, WiFi System, Sporting fields, the woo equiped Library System including the departmental and Junior Common Rooms (JCRs) libraries among others of which students are no longer guaranteed access to under the E-Learning arrangements for the rest of the semester (Academic year)"._
One of the lead petitioners, Kojo Danquah added in a separate engagement when he was contacted that, _"the poor quality of lectures as precipitated by poor internet stability, inability to engage lecturers directly and the lack of laboratory based classes were enough reasons for management to had pondered about a considerable slash in tuition fees after the announcement of the E-Learning policy."_
Sampson Tagbor is also quoted in a WhatsApp group engagement to have said that, _"it is quiet unfathomable that, the University having asked students to vacate the residential facilities and subsequently directed to return for their belongings when we had hardly spent half of the semester in these facilities, you would want to think that every well meaning University like ours with the outmost concern for its students would have been making arrangements for a partial refund of fees us, the case is different as our PRO VC for Academics and Student Affairs was reported by Radio Univers saying otherwise. It totally beats one's imaginations"._
As the petitioners embark on the signatories collection to support their petition to the University and the relevant stakeholders, we will be keeping an eye on this new development.
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