GEORGETOWN, Guyana (CMC) — The Vice Chancellor of the University of Guyana, Professor Ivelaw Griffith, says he is prepared to recommend a postponement of the five per cent increase in tuition fees after students staged a peaceful protest at the institution on Monday.

“I am going to be proposing to the body that has the final say in this, the financing general purpose committee, that we no longer proceed with the five per cent this year,” Griffith said, noting that he has already met with the University of Guyana Students Society (UGSS) leadership.

The students said they had been informed of the GUY$8,000 (One Guyana dollar =US$0.004 cents) hike in e-mails last week and that the increased fees come at a time when the UG has not improved facilities. They also said some classrooms were extremely hot.

The protestors, mainly first- and second-year students said their action was also to show their disappointment that the university had increased fees without any discussions with the student body.

Except for law and medicine, the tuition fees would be $GUY168,000 per academic year instead of GUY$160,000 plus a GUY$50,000 facilities fee.

Professor Griffith told students that they deserve more that his apology for the sudden hike imposed upon them, and said the university had not done what they were supposed to have done administratively in relation to the e-mail received by students, announcing the change.

UG Registrar Dr Nigel Gravesande said that there had been a communication gap between his office and the software committee in making the necessary adjustments to the invoices sent out to students at the beginning of the semester.

He told the students that in 2014, the University Council held a meeting where it was decided that fees were to be adjusted incrementally at a rate of five per cent.