Protest march by UWI students

Bridgetown.

Students at the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies will march from the Roy Marshall Teacher Centre at Cave Hillto the offices of Prime Minister Freundel Stuart, at Government Headquarters on Friday, to protest  against government’s proposal to make Barbadians pay their full tuition from the 2014 academic year.

President of the Students Guild, Damani Parris told Trakker News,  mass protest, which starts at 9 a.m., was to show the students  dissatisfaction at government not accepting the need to retreat from the position of imposing the new fees.

He said the students wanted to send a message to government that they did not intend to let the issue die.

In his 2013 Financial Statement and Budgetary Proposals, Minister of Finance, Chris Sinckler announced that local students would pay tuition fees at the University of the West Indies campuses across the region, while the government continued to take care of the economic costs. This new policy, Sinckler had said, would reduce transfers to the UWI by about $42 million annually.