Minister of Legal Affairs Basil Williams will be presenting proposals to Cabinet to alleviate the financial burden placed on Guyanese law students by the recent hike in fees at the Hugh Wooding Law School.
Hugh Wooding, located on the St Augustine Campus of the University of the West Indies recently announced a more than 30% increase in its tuition fees as well as changes in its payment scheme which would require prospective and continuing students to pay 100% of their fees at the beginning of the school year. Guyanese students will now have to pay $5.8 million (TT$182,028) for the two-year programme to obtain their Legal Education Certificate (LEC) from the Trinidad-based law school. They previously paid $4.2 million (TT$131,400) for the two-year programme.
Students also previously had the option to pay 50% of the fees at the beginning of each semester, September and January respectively.
This change could see cash-strapped Guyanese law students unable to complete their legal education due to an inability to comply with the payment guidelines.
After meeting with members of the University of Guyana administration to “brainstorm” possible solutions, to what he referred to as a “virtual crisis” Williams told reporters that in the long term the government will be looking to open its own law school while short-term proposals include possible subsidization of the cost for Guyanese students.
“A permanent solution is to have our own law school either as a private-public partnership or wholly owned by the government. A committee is shortly to be appointed to look into the feasibility of establishing a law school in Guyana… That’s however for the medium to long term,” Williams said.
Vice Chancellor of UG Jacob Opadeyi explained that while several proposals were put forward at the meeting, any or all of them “will require approval at the Cabinet level” so their contents will not be fully divulged right now.
Present at the meeting were Williams, Opadeyi, Head of the University of Guyana Law Department Sheldon McDonald, Technical Advisor to senior Minister of Education Vincent Alexander, President of the Guyana Bar Association Christopher Ram and Member of the Council of Legal Education (CLE) Ronald Burch-Smith.
The meeting discussed such matters as a possible review of the collaborative agreement between UWI, UG and the CLE, the question of a government of Guyana contribution to the Hugh Wooding Law School which will see a reduction in the sums paid by Guyanese students and possibly making available needs-based loans to local students who wish to pursue a legal education.
Opadeyi however stressed that most of the efforts of the meeting were on structuring plans for the creation of a local law school, “which we see more than anything else as good business since several countries in the Caribbean face the same problem as Guyana. So if you have a vibrant law school with adequate funding it can actually pay for itself.”
Meanwhile President of the UG Law Students Society Chevy Devonish told Stabroek News that law students are looking forward to a speedy resolution as their payment deadline looms with the registration deadline, less than two months away.
He said while students acknowledge that Hugh Wooding had a right to raise its fees, “at the same time we note that the increase has taken pace two months before the beginning of semester and ask the Government of Guyana to assist by pursuing one of several paths as soon as possible. It may, on behalf of the Guyanese students lobby the school for the introduction of more feasible payment plan. It can also decide to facilitate a financial process to alleviate the burden by granting loans to the students or paying the tuition cost as part of a service plan which would allow the students upon graduation to work off the cost.”
