Fees for local students not raised in 16 years

Speaking with Newsday, Dr Tewarie added it was most unfortunate that Science, Technology and Tertiary Education Minister Mustapha Abdul-Hamid would state UWI had reneged on an agreement it had with Government regarding tuition fees.

At Thursday’s post-Cabinet meeting, Hamid lashed out at Tewarie, saying Government was taken by surprise at protests by UWI medical students on the St Augustine campus last Tuesday. He then described UWI’s proposed hike in fees as "unacceptable."

However, a calm and very composed Tewarie told Newsday that his Vice Chancellor E Nigel Harris had a meeting with Hamid yesterday at the minister’s office and the issue was dealt with.

"The minister (Hamid) met with Vice Chancellor Harris and, based on what the Vice Chancellor communicated to me, there was a misunderstanding of what actually transpired on the St Augustine campus with regard to nationals enrolled in the medical sciences faculty," Tewarie said.

"Let me for public information state categorically that there has been no increase in fees for TT nationals. This is what I said in a letter to the minister (Hamid) and this is in fact reality which can be substantiated by minutes of the last finance and general purposes committee meeting," Tewarie said.

He added that the Bursary did print financial information which may have suggested an increase in fees for local nationals, and this may have led to a misunderstanding both on the part of Hamid as well as the students who protested. However, the university did not demand increased fees from TT nationals — either new or returning.

"Fees however were increased for regional and international students and that is in keeping with the mandate of the faculty to make itself as self-sufficient as possible. The Government has traditionally subsidised some local nationals attending the medical programme and with the onset of GATE, all nationals benefit from this facility (GATE)," Dr Tewarie said.

"It has also come to my attention that some new students would have paid to the banks the fees indicated in the financial booklet. Depending on the position of Government, any overpayment by these students would be refunded," Dr Tewarie said.

"We will continue to await the ministry’s response to proposals that we have submitted in various forms between June and September and we look forward to a positive response."

The principal said that proposals made were not only of a financial nature, but also included proposals for the long-term viability of the faculty of medical sciences which has five schools — medicine, dentistry, veterinary medicine, pharmacy and nursing.

Regarding fees for local students, Tewarie said the fee to access the pre-clinical course of study was TT$36,700, and for the clinical study — TT$44,000. "These fees have not been changed since 1989," Tewarie said.