Students at the University of the West Indies' Mona Campus are adamant that they "will not even consider" paying a recently-approved 10 per cent tuition hike unless school administrators stop barring students with outstanding fees from taking exams.

"A 10-per cent increase while barring students is ridiculous," said guild president, Damion Crawford.
The guild, he explained, has not yet decided on a course of action if UWI does not revisit its policy of barring students, but added that it was unlikely the student body would have to take action as the school's administrators were fair.

However, UWI has made it clear that it has no intention of changing its policy.
"Provisions are made for students to come up with payment arrangements," said public relations officer, Carroll Edwards.

Students who need help with fees, the administration added, have access to the Needy Students' Fund, the Students' Loan Bureau, as well as scholarships and bursaries made available via the private sector or alumni groups.
"The bursary makes several efforts during the year to get students to pay their fees, or to discuss payment plans," said UWI. "More than half of those owing have not come forward to do so."

The fee increase came days before education minister, Maxine Henry-Wilson, approved a $40-million emergency loan for about 700 students who owe tuition, residential and other university fees from last year, clearing the way for them to sit exams.

Crawford stressed that students were grateful for the minister's intervention but predicted that the problem would only recur next year, with students who are behind in their payments again being barred from the exam rooms. Forty per cent of the students cannot afford the current fees, he said.

Fees were increased by 6.3 per cent at the Mona campus last year, eliciting howls of protest from students. With that increase, full-time degree candidates in the faculties of Humanities and Education, Social Sciences, Pure and Applied Sciences and Advanced Nursing were being asked to pay $116,125 for tuition for the 2003/2004 academic year. Law students' tuition moved up to $128,004 while medical students were asked to pay as much as $353,786. Part-time students pay per credit.

As of September, the new tuition fees for full-time students will be:
. $127,738 for the faculties of Humanities and Education, Social Sciences, Pure and Applied Sciences and Advanced Nursing;
. $140,804 for law students;
. $204,268 for pre-clinical medical students; and
. $389,165 for clinical medical students.
The Council of the University of the West Indies agreed on the new fee structure at its annual business meeting, held late last month. Unlike the Mona campus, prices at other UWI campuses in the region have not been hiked.

The new fees, the council, said, were based on "its previous commitments to attain a cost recovery ratio of 20 per cent of total economic costs on all three campuses, while keeping annual increases at least on par with the inflation rate in Jamaica for students at Mona".
There will be no fee increase for the campuses at Cave Hill, Barbados and St Augustine in Trinidad where, the council said, the 20 per cent cost recovery ratio has been attained.

The council also decided, at its last meeting, that graduate programmes should attract the same fees as those at the undergraduate level. Previously, fees for graduate programmes, whether Master's or research degrees, were set at 50 per cent of the undergraduate tuition fees as a means of encouraging enrolment of graduate students. It was further agreed that a portion of the fees would be retained by the School for Graduate Studies and Research to top up its fund for scholarships, grants and bursaries, which would be used to alleviate the financial burden on students who would qualify for assistance through an appropriate means test.

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