The Students Representative Council (SRC) of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), has allocated GH₵50,000 to support some of the 6,000 students deferred by management for failure to meet their tuition fee obligation within the stipulated timeline.
According to the President of the SRC, Michael Abuah, the student leadership body has set aside the said amount to pay part of the fees for only students who have paid more than 50 percent of their fee amount.
He stressed that out of the total 6,000 affected students, over 2,300 of them are needy students who have been offered bursaries which are yet to reflect in their accounts.
Furthermore, the SRC president assured the student body that the leadership has been able to negotiate with management, and a consensus has been reached for students who pay their arrears within this period to get their deferrals reversed.
“The SRC has negotiated to make sure that if you even pay the arrears today, you can have your status reverted. The SRC has also negotiated that these people will have their monies hit their accounts by Monday.
The SRC has started disbursement of the GH₵50,000 with immediate effect, the first tranche of money disbursed will hit the accounts soon to make sure these people are alleviated from such situations,” the president said.
This act by the SRC follows a heartbreaking communique issued by the management of the University on Tuesday that about 6,000 students have been deferred by the school for inability to pay at least 70 percent of their fees at the close of the set deadline, April 7, 2022.
“Dear student, your programme has been deferred as you have not met the minimum requirement of the KNUST fees credit and debt management policy,” the message sent to the affected 6,000 students read.
The SRC also debunked claims by the management of the University that some of the over 6,000 students who have been deferred used their school fees to engage in gambling, football betting, and other misapplications.
The SRC also hopes that corporate Ghana and other benevolent organizations will come to the aid of the affected students to ensure their tertiary education path is not truncated.
