The cost of applying to pursue an undergraduate degree at the University for Development Studies has shot up.
Prospective Ghanaian undergraduate applicants who wish to be considered for admission into the school for the 2023/2024 academic year must pay GHC 200.00 before they can access the university’s admission forms.
Last year, the cost was pegged at GHC 180.00, which was also an increase from the 2023 cost.
The cost for foreign applicants has also shot up from $100.00 to $150.00.
UDS’ cost of application form is now at par with that of the University of Ghana, who have been charging the same amount since, at least, 2015.
Despite the increase, the University of Development Studies is among the tertiary institutions in the country with the cheapest cost of application forms.
Prospective applicants have until April 30, 2023 to submit their forms.
Increasing cost of tertiary admission forms
Most public universities in the country are increasing the cost of their application forms, a situation which is becoming a worry for some parents with their ward in Senior High School.
They fear that if efforts are not made to regulate how much tertiary institutions charge as admission application cost, it might become overly expensive.
To avoid a “put all your eggs in one basket” situation, some applicants apply to more than one tertiary institution with hopes of being offered admission to at least one of them.
Although this will cost them more, applicants find it safer.
In that light, the government has hinted on plans to introduce a placement system for admission into tertiary institutions in Ghana.
The Centralized University Admissions and Placement Service (CAPS) is to replace the current stressful and expensive system of applying to different universities.
Minister of Education in charge tertiary education, Prof. Kwesi Yankah explained that the decision by the government was influenced by a proposal received from a nine-member committee chaired by Professor Cliff Tagoe in the Tertiary Education Policy Document submitted on November 1, 2023 to the Ministry of Education.
“It is the proposal for a Centralised University Admissions and Placement Service (CAPS), which replaces the stressful and rather expensive system of applying to separate universities in Ghana with a centralised system, where the applicants list their choices of university on a single platform.
“A central administrative and technical setup then facilitates the process of placement,” the committee said.