Give us our degrees

GRADUATES of the University of Southern Caribbean (USC) want Government to intervene in order to get their degrees.

Some of the graduates who signed contracts with the school saying they will forgo receiving their degrees until their Government Assistance for Tuition Expenses (GATE) bill was cleared, told Sunday Newsday that they felt they were forced into doing so. The students, who graduated on July 6, said their lives are now stuck waiting for the state to pay USC so that they could receive the degrees they worked for.

“We did not have any contracts with USC,” a representative for the past students said. “We did what we were supposed to do. GATE needed to do what they had to do. Yeah, we signed the contract because we feel like we had to. We were told if we didn’t sign the contract we will not graduate and after studying for so long we wanted to graduate.”

Sunday Newsday reached out to USC, which said the measure taken were to ensure the institution received monies owed to it. The university, in a June 25 release sent to Sunday Newsday following questions about students’ concerns, said: “The USC continues to distribute diplomas to its graduates who have satisfied their financial obligations to the university. In accordance with university policy, all graduating students who receive GATE funding must receive GATE financial clearance before the diplomas are released. In some instances, where there are discrepancies with the GATE claims or when late claims are submitted, this will delay the clearance process and ultimately the issuance of the diplomas. However, the university is working with the GATE office to resolve these issues so that graduates can be cleared expeditiously, and the diplomas can be released in a timely manner. The university provides completion letters for graduates awaiting financial clearance. Diplomas for associate degrees, bachelor’s and master’s degrees are distributed within a three-month period after graduation.”

Some past students who graduated last year are still owed their degrees after their GATE funding was not cleared with the school. Some of the past students claimed they are being told that they will have to foot the bill themselves if they wish to receive their degrees. Others added that they were not owing and submitted all their necessary paperwork for clearance. The past students said each term they are made to pay a registration fee, and registration can only take place after receiving GATE clearance. They are confused by the school’s policy.

In the 2017/2018 budget, GATE, which was free for all, was reformatted so that students needed to be assessed before they were granted funding. Students with higher household incomes received less funding, if any at all.

Calls and messages to both Education Minister Anthony Garcia and minister in the ministry, Dr Lovell Francis, went unanswered.