Graduate students to protest over delayed payment of grants

The Graduate Students’ Association of Ghana (GRASAG), embarks on a peaceful demonstration over the delayed release of grants by government to fund research works of post-graduate students in all public universities across the country.

In a statement signed by the association’s national President Dr. Samuel Bert Boadi-Kusi, GRASAG said it has used all diplomatic means, negotiations and dialogued with key stakeholders in ensuring that the money is released on time but all to no avail despite academic year of universities are ending by May 25, 2012 and “students are in highly expectant of this money”.

“As a result, an emergency senate meeting of the leaders of GRASAG nationwide has decided to embark on a very peaceful demonstration on Monday, May 7, 2012 dubbed “YABRƐ DEMONSTRATION”.

The association appealed to government to be proactive in resolving the crisis at hand.

This statement is the third in series on this subject since  April 12, 2012 and government is still not forthcoming on the matter.

We again call on the current government and future ones to show more commitment to post graduate education and research to enhance our national economic growth agenda, the statement said.

The annual bursary and thesis grants are part of the five types of scholarships for local Public Universities and Polytechnics under the LOCAL TERTIARY SCHOLARSHIP AWARDS of the Scholarships Secretariat.

The thesis grants are payment of graduated allowances to PhD., M. Phil and Masters/Postgraduate Diploma students working on their thesis for one academic year while the bursary grants are paid uniformly across board annually to mitigate the course cost of postgraduate students.

By Ekow Quandzie