President of the the National Secretariat of the Graduate Students Association of Ghana (GRASAG), Miss Iris Kwafo Mensah has attributed delays in the release of the annual thesis and bursary grants to its members to ‘delays in registration’ for the bursary.
GRASAG in August 2018 commenced an online electronic application system to enable students apply for their annual thesis and bursary grants from the government. The new initiative was to ease the burden and create a form of paperless system in both the secretariat and GRASAG offices.
However, few months after commencement of the process, some graduate students in the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology have expressed concerns over too much delays by the GRASAG secretariat in releasing the bursary due them.
In an interview with the Public Relations officer of GRASAG-KNUST, Mr Ofori Frimpong, on focus FM, Miss Kwafo Mensah explained that earlier within the semester when registration for the bursary came to an end some students expressed concerns that necessitated extension of the registration period. This she said led to delay in submission of applications.
“Now we submitted our list on the 29th of October because some graduate students came the complain that when we open the registration, they were not there to register, and through the effort of the local president we were able to get the whole window extended,” she said.
According to her, the platform for bursaries registration was re-opened between Wednesday 10th October 2018 and Wednesday 18th October 2018 to allow for eligible graduate school members to go back to the platform to register as well as correct errors if any on their prior registration.
Responding to threats by UG branch of GRASAG to hit the streets, Miss Kwafo Mensah downplayed the need for demonstration insisting that the Scholarship secretariat is ready to work on the bursary just that they are time constraint.
“I think if you want to have a demonstration as a local association, that is your decision but at the national secretariat we don’t think we have support for a demonstration”- She said
She appealed to students to remain calm and patient as the scholarship secretariat work on the disbursement of the bursary.
The Graduate Students Association of Ghana (GRASAG) earlier accused the government of selective payment of bursary and scholarship grants of graduate students both home and abroad, leaving the academic progress of others in the balance.
The Association has admitted that, delays in releasing the funds for graduate students to continue with their various research works is making life uncomfortable for them.
