Graduation is sweet reward for years of sacrifice.
Avia Ustanny, Freelance Writer
THE plight of the university student who is being asked to pay a hefty 25 to 50 per cent increase in fees must be understood in the context of the role of education among poor Jamaicans.
The school represents for many a wilderness passage from poverty to the promised land of self-sufficiency. Now, as advancing indebtedness threatens, many begin to wonder if the investment is worth it; if the ripe promise of education has become the souring notes of the piper's call.
This week, Outlook magazine looks at the dilemma facing students and Government. We ask: is the investment is worth it at all?
Under the UWI's proposed arrangement for September 2001, full-time students in any faculty except Law, Engineering and Medical Sciences, would be charged fixed fees that would entitle them to register for a range of credits.
Students would pay extra for any credits in excess of the full-time load, while part-time students would be charged on a course/credit basis.
Fees proposed are as follows:
Arts and Education -- $83,708 to $101, 527
Social Sciences -- $67,185 to $101,527
Medical-clinical -- $253,401 to $309,310
At the UWI, mass meetings of students were held under flyers bearing the following responses:
"If you can't afford it, you just can't afford it."
"You have to say no to unfair increases in fees."
"Did you have difficulty paying your fee increase this year? Are you broke, on students loan, unable to afford books and course materials, tired of eating corned beef and dumplings everyday? This increase in tuition is especially for you. Fight it, say no."
Though, by now, the uproar over increased fees at the University of the West Indies has been muted, poorer students are still wincing over pinch to come and the threat of a future heavily mired in student loans debt.
But, should they be counting their blessings?
Other students who have chosen to study in North America suggest that the lot for the Jamaican student is still easier than theirs. Fees in the United States are two to eight times as expensive, especially for international students. For many students attending universities there, credit funding for education is a way of life.
Sir Alister McIntyre, former Vice Chancellor, and Professor Rex Nettleford, current Vice Chancellor, contribute to this debate, balancing the plaintive complaints of the current UWI students.
"We cannot continue the situation where we are investing heavily in young people without a commensurate return from them. There is only 13 per cent at this level now, (because there is not enough space for more students)," said Sir Alister.
The cess is an agonising choice, but those who have to pay must remember the remaining 87 per cent who are outside of the system and for whom funds must be found to prepare a place, he suggested.
"Theoretically, the 20 per cent of the cost they contribute means less money spent by government and more for other social sectors and other areas of educational development," Sir Alister said.
Is this government really doing all it can?
WARY OF DEBT
LESS than one-third of students of the University of the West Indies rely on loans to pay their tuition fees (18.3 per cent received loans in 2000-01). But those who do may be mortgaging their future for the next 10 years, unless they find a way to pay the loan at a faster rate.
Today, the sum borrowed, and the interest rate, as well as the terms of repayment, are much more difficult than in the halcyon days when interest did not begin to accrue until the graduate had collected his or her diploma and, therefore, ready to work.
The interest rate of the loans is 16 per cent and begins to be calculated from the moment the tuition fees land in the University's account. By the time of graduation and even before the first pay cheque is collected, three years of unpaid, compounded interest has accrued.
"Many do not know they can start repaying while they are studying," an officer of the Student Loan Bureau said.
"They can also close their account with lump sum payments," the officer continued.
Well, if the student falls in that group of those who take 10 years to repay, then the rate at which they pay out will range between $6,000 and $20,000 for each month. A student who borrows an annual sum of $120,000 for three years will repay $10,500 each month. Medical students, who will have borrowed nearly $1 million by the time they finish their clinicals will, of course, pay much more.
Students are aware of the figures and appear to be shying away from the commitment. There has been a noticeable decline in the number of applicants after 1997 when the new loan scheme was in its second year and when over 2,000 applications were approved.
The UWI, however, remains the Bureau's largest client.
In the last five years the University has remained the largest group among the 22,088 students who received $1.3 billion in loans during that period.
