Students’ for $300 repayment

Barbadians at the University of the West Indies (UWI) are willing to continue their studies but are hoping for an ease in tuition fees, a survey has found.
Most of the students, 74 per cent, said they could afford repayments of up to $300 monthly through low-cost loans.
More than 700 students ranging in age from 16 years to over 40 took part in the recent survey by UWI management studies lecturer Dr Dwayne Devonish on Student Perceptions of Tuition Fees at UWI and Suggested Solutions at the Cave Hill Campus. It was a follow up to an earlier study when it was first announced that students would have to bear the cost of tuition from the next academic year.
In the September/October 2013 survey, half the students had said they would have to drop out because of the imposition of the fees.
Last year, Government announced that while it would continue paying the economic costs for Barbadians at UWI, students would have to foot the lesser tuition fees, which run as high as $17 000 for medical students and between $6 000 to $9 800 for the other faculties per academic year.
The decision brings an end to a privilege of free education which Barbadians have enjoyed at UWI campuses for decades. (AC)