GRASAG pickets at Flagstaff House September 21

Graduate students across the country have revealed their intentions to picket at the Flagstaff House on September 21 if government fails to release their annual bursary and thesis grants, National President of GRASAG Rashid Kwesi Etuaful has indicated.

He told ClassFMonline.com on Saturday September 10 that: “We are serving notice should the Minister of Finance fail to meet the 16th September deadline, all members and member institutions should join the national GRASAG to picket on the 21st of September, 2016, at the Flagstaff House to demonstrate our displeasure for the undue delay of our thesis and bursary grants.”

He explained that the association had exhausted all avenues available and have duly followed the laid down and required procedure yet the Ministry of Finance has failed to mobilise and release the cheques to the Scholarship Secretariat.

In a petition to the president, John Mahama, he indicated that the situation was becoming overly worrying that graduate students had to go through the same old process to get the right thing done for them to have what was due them.

“Over the past few years, the excessive delay of allowance has caused students to go through unbearable hardship, particularly in the completion of our research work, and many students find themselves stranded on the field collecting data,” he argued.

According to him, the thesis grants were payments made to PhD, MPhil and MA/Postgraduate Diploma students working on their research for one academic year, while the bursary grants were paid uniformly across board annually to mitigate the course cost of postgraduate education. The continual payment of these grants and allowances demonstrates the fact that governments over the years appreciate the significance of postgraduate education and research to our national economy.

He lamented that the amount was not enough as he called for an increase. He did not understand why the payment of the current funds, which are not even sufficient, continues to be delayed until the end of the year.

The association, therefore, wonders “why the payment of the grants, which has been fixed as low as GHS450.00 for Master of Business Administration (MBA) and Master of Arts (MA) students, as well as GHS470.00 and GHS700.00 for Master of Philosophy and PhD students respectively,” has been delayed amazingly to the extent that the academic year has virtually ended.

They, therefore, appealed to government to establish a permanent solution to solve the recurring undue delay in disbursement and institute “immediate measures to ensure an increment in the bursary and thesis grant since it is evidentially clear that the current allowance given to the graduate student is woefully inadequate”.