UB bachelor students pay large fee for same course as associate students
Selwyn King
On Thursday, several students of the University of Belize held a press conference at which they levied accusations at the institution. The students say that UB is overcharging students from the Bachelor’s Program for Associate Level courses which they must re-take when the school, seemingly without reason, does not accept credits for courses taken in junior colleges. And there are other complaints, which these students say they compiled after extensive research, placed in a report and delivered to the Provost’s Office two weeks ago. Tonight there is some good news, though not great news just yet. The good news is that the cries of the students have been heard, but there is no word on whether there will be any change. That decision will rest in the hands of the President.
Selwyn King, Office of Information, UB
“I saw the newscast so in terms of the allegations that were made. What I can say at this moment is that the office of the president has not received any report which was reported in the newscast by Mister Menzies, I believe. When that report—hopefully we receive that report today—the president will examine the report; review the report and then from there we suspect he will then call in the academic deans to get their sense in how the operation takes place. Once he receives the report and hopefully he receives it later today—for the last that he receives it on Monday. Once he receives that report, he will have an exchange with the academic deans because once applications come in, they then submit it to the academic deans in terms of transcripts, in terms of transfer of courses. So he will then have that discussion with the academic deans and we will have a statement that we will submit to the media next week, as soon as possible. But we must have the report on hand, he must review it and then we will take it from there.”
One of the accusations is that the University is also fleecing the Ministry of Education where students on scholarship are concerned. The rationale is that the Ministry is paying the school about triple the cost for Bachelors students whose credits at the associate’s level were not accepted. That exorbitant price gouge is a result of Bachelor’s Program fees of ninety dollars for those courses, while students who are enrolled in the Associate’s Program pay only twenty nine dollars.
Are you serious? The students have submitted the report to the provost. who long will it take for her to walk it over to thePresident office? Do you mean to tell me that UB doesn’t have the capacity to do their own investigation? Does that mean they don’t know their own processes in place to either refute or accept what is being said by the students? That’s what you get for firing the person who was in making huge advances in streamlining the entire junior college and university articulation process…..chaos. You won’t get anything sensible from the current leadership at UB
Are you kidding me!! Do you mean the Provost has the report for the past two weeks and she can’t get up and walk next door to inform the President? DO you mean they can’t investigate on their own to refute or confirm the claims made by the students? This is the level of incompetence of the leadership at UB.
It seems there must be dialog between the community colleges and UB, so that course requirements and curriculum are standardized, and can be accepted as equal. BUT THEY MUST REALLY BE MADE EQUAL, TOO.
If a community college is giving an inferior level of education, there is no reason to give its course credits equal standing with course credits from UB or other, better colleges. Students should demand quality from their schools, so they can avoid this kind of problem.
There is no investigation needed in this case, it is a fact that students have been paying the price of a Bachelor degree course for associate degree courses a long long time ago… I am one of those students who paid those prices, management knows this -> a while back students who were going straight through to their bachelors would take one or two bachelor courses at associate prices, UB would find out and charge but when its the other way around, they charge you, no questions asked. Additionally, you don’t have to come from another Junior college, you can be a UB graduate but when you go back to do a Bachelors, you pay for a huge number of prerequisites which you shouldn’t have had since thats where you graduated from, but its not the case.
This is only one of the reasons why the UB is one undeserving institution to be the flag bearer as Belize’s University. The diploma is so watered down that people graduating from there are still unable to perform in the real working world. The Caliber of instructions is mirrored on the caliber of the graduating students.
@Meandi is right, UB has quality problems beyond this problem of inconsistent policies on accepting units from other schools.
I’d like to have some top foreign educators, from countries with accredited, acknowledged GOOD college programs, make some recommendations how to improve UB and the other colleges, top to bottom.
It’s embarrassing that our national university isn’t accredited. With good leadership and a sound plan, there is no reason it can’t do a credible job of teaching. It’s failing today, but it doesn’t have to We are not inherently inferior to other countries, but I think we need to learn from good programs. We don’t need to “reinvent the wheel,” and waste a few decades trying to figure things out. Every year wasted is the loss of precious time for the students.