The University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) has raised objections to the NDC's John Dramani Mahama's pledge to pay academic user facility fees for all level 100 students if elected into power.

With over forty-five thousand eligible students unable to gain university admission each year, primarily due to financial constraints, the NDC aims to boost university enrolment by removing these financial barriers.

However, UTAG suggests that the funds should be distributed to universities as bursaries to be administered directly.

Speaking on JoyNews' PM Express, the President of UTAG, Professor Mahamoud Akudugu said another alternative will be for the policy to target only needy students.

"It is good news that government wants to do this, but we at the universities we are also concerned about the fact that currently, government's funding to the universities have drastically declined to the extent that only salaries are being paid. Universities are expected to pay their own electricity, utility bills and all the rest.

"So if you are proposing a policy of this nature and there is no provision for infrastructure and the rest of it, then at the end of the day, the students will come and there is no place to sit. So we will want a fuller picture of what they want to do at the tertiary level so we can holistically deal with it.

"For us, we believe that this policy should be targeted for equity and besides that, we would have even preferred that this is given as bursaries and scholarships or grants to the universities to administer because they will be able to know who are the needy students based on their history. It should be targeted because that is the only way to create equity when it comes to these type of policies."

On his part, Executive Director of Africa Education Watch, Kofi Asare said the suggestion by UTAG is the best practice around the world.

"The best practice in western countries dictate that for bursaries and financial assistant schemes to benefit students, the universities are the ones who must administer them and then report to the scholarship authority."

But Director of Inter-Party and CSO relations for the opposition NDC, Dr. Peter Boamah Otokunor, argues that UTAG's suggestion opens the policy to fraud, insisting that all students must benefit.

"I strongly disagree because it will create room for rent-seeking because mind you, in the universities there are equally a number of rent seekers who will also want to take advantage of some of these things.

"The key thing about policy efficiency is that you must as much as possible remove the human intervention and now every university runs an electronic system of registration."

Background
The flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Mahama, has announced that first-year tertiary students will not pay academic fees.

According to him, this initiative is part of the government’s effort to lessen the financial burden on parents funding their children's education.

"We will implement a no-fees stress programme to alleviate the financial burden on parents and students in financing tertiary education.

• Read also: UTAG wants detailed plan on NDC’s proposal to pay fees for freshers amid infrastructural challenges

"We will implement a no academic fees policy at the university for level 100 students," Mahama said during the NDC’s manifesto reading on August 12.

Additionally, Mr Mahama noted that the party will redeploy the Student Loan Trust Fund to give continuing students the option to utilise student loans to finance their university fees directly, ensuring that students can focus on their studies with peace of mind.