KINGSTON, Jamaica – More than half of law students at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona, have indicated that they plan to take a leave-of-absence from school following the announcement of an increase in the exchange rate UWI uses to calculate fees in US dollars.

This was revealed in a survey of the students last week, according to President of UWI’s Law Society, Tamoy Campbell, who said the students were polled after the university last Monday announced an increase in its exchange rate from J$148.33 to US$1, to J$155.35 for US$1.

The shift in the exchange rate means that students will have to pay approximately $1.55 million per semester or 10 per cent more than the $1.4 million the previous year for the law programme which is among several UWI courses with fees quoted in US dollars.

And, according to Campbell, the majority of students surveyed indicated that they are unable to afford the increase in tuition cost.

“We did a survey and we had the majority of the students opting to take leave-of-absence, so they want to take the semester off. Leave-of-absence is becoming a popular thing, and people are deciding to withdraw,” Campbell told Observer Online.

“We have the incoming first years who are wondering if they should switch to another faculty, or they don’t know what the next step is,” she added.  

Campbell noted that the survey conducted last Tuesday had approximately 64 responses, with 56.5 per cent of the students indicating that they are going to deregister since they are unable to pay the tuition. 

The law programme at UWI, Mona, is among several “self-financing programmes” that are not funded by the university’s contributing governments and are priced in US dollars. Others include film, medical sciences and engineering.

In a memorandum last Monday to students in self-financing programmes, the institution’s Campus Registrar noted that, “Despite these programmes being designed and budgeted in US dollars, over the years the campus has been pegging the exchange rate for the year resulting in the campus having to absorb the loss as a result of the devaluation of the Jamaican dollar.

“As a consequence of the increased fiscal constraints in which the campus operates, unfortunately we can no longer continue to operate in this manner. The campus will therefore be setting the foreign exchange rate each semester. The rate for semester one is US$1 to J$155.35,” the memo stated, adding that the campus will “assess the prevailing market rate ahead of the start of each semester and advise students of the applicable rate for the semester.”

Campbell said law students were “blindsided” by the “late” announcement and are struggling to cover the additional cost at what she said was short notice with the new semester set to begin late August.

“The harsh thing is that it came so late into the [year] and people don’t have the time to plan… It’s almost $140,000 more,” she said.

“We spoke with senior management (of UWI), who told us that they are just really in a financial bind and they cannot afford it and they have to cover their costs, and the school is in debt. The essence of the meeting was really to cement how much the UWI is struggling financially,” Campbell added.

According to Campbell, law students are becoming increasingly frustrated with the tuition increases and believe they are not receiving ‘bang for buck’ from the university.

“Law students always feel like they are carrying the burden of the university and it’s really unfair to them,” Campbell said, arguing “We aren’t entirely sure what we are paying for… Tell us some of the other things now, like the quality of the education overall.”

The Jamaican dollar has depreciated by 14 per cent against its US counterpart since March 10 of last year, when Jamaica recorded its first case of the novel coronavirus. On Monday, August 23, 2021 the US dollar traded at J$153.73.