WHEN FORMER PRESIDENT George Weah stood before hundreds of cheering students at the Capitol Hill Campus in 2018 and declared undergraduate education tuition-free at all public universities, it felt like a turning point. For thousands of Liberian families, the $15-per-semester fee was not merely symbolic; it was the difference between a diploma and a dead end.
TODAY, THAT HARD–WON access is under threat. And we urge the administration of the University of Liberia, led by Dr. Layli Maparyan, to think carefully before raising the knife. Dr. Maparyan has signalled that fee increases are inevitable. Her reasoning – that generators, buses, and fuel cost more due to global conflicts – is not without economic logic. But logic divorced from lived reality is a poor compass for policy.
THE STUDENTS AND parents who would bear this burden are already drowning. Transportation fares have skyrocketed. Food prices climb daily. Taxes fall without mercy. To add even 1,000 Liberian dollars to a student’s registration bill is not an adjustment; it is a blow. The proposed increase, unconfirmed but widely speculated at 10,000 Liberian dollars per semester, would more than triple the current fee of 3,000 L$.
THE STUDENT UNIFICATION Party (SUP) has vowed resistance. The Solidarity and Trust for a New Day (STAND) has called the proposal “wicked, heartless, and unacceptable.” And a separate group of concerned students has taken to calling the university president “Dr. Maproblem” – a crude moniker, but one born of genuine despair. Before the administration asks students to pay more, we ask: What have students received for what they already pay?
THE STUDENTS’ OWN words are damning. They sit in total darkness. They stand during lectures because there are not enough chairs. Science labs are empty shells. Bathrooms are health hazards. Internet access is nonexistent. Buses do not run. The registration system is chaotic. This is not a university fulfilling its compact with young Liberians; this is a broken promise dressed in brick and mortar.
NOR IS THE free tuition policy itself beyond reproach. A recent performance audit by the General Auditing Commission (GAC) – covering seven years from 2018 to 2025 – found that the government spent approximately $7.4 million on the programme, yet there is no written framework guiding implementation. Administrators received no clear operational guidelines. Students continue to pay additional fees that, in some cases, exceed the tuition costs the government removed.
CLASSROOMS DESIGNED FOR 45 students now hold 71 to 100. The audit concluded that the amount disbursed does not even correspond with the number of students and credit hours registered. In other words, the problem is not that Liberia cannot afford free tuition. The problem is that the policy has been managed without transparency, accountability, or basic planning.
DR. MAPARYAN IS right that the policy must be evaluated. But evaluation is not a prelude to a fee hike. It is an opportunity to fix what is broken: the infrastructure, the registration system, the laboratories, and the transportation. A performance audit should lead to performance improvement – not a bill handed to the poorest constituents on campus.
WE CAUTION AGAINST two dangerous assumptions. The first is that students will simply adjust. Mr. Odecious Mulbah, chairman of the SUP, has already warned that “any attempt to increase a single dollar” will be resisted. Student protests are planned for July 2026 – Independence month, no less – and STAND has launched a broader coalition against economic hardship and police brutality. This is not sabre-rattling; it is a warning born of exhaustion.
THE SECOND ASSUMPTION is that an increase is the only way forward. It is not. The GAC audit itself points to massive inefficiencies and inconsistent fee structures across institutions. There is room for reform that does not crush the very students the university exists to serve. Let us be clear: We are not opposed to the university receiving adequate funding. We are opposed to doing so on the backs of young Liberians who already sacrifice meals, transport, and sleep to stay enrolled.
IF THE ADMINISTRATION proceeds with this increase, it will not be remembered as a difficult decision made in hard times. It will be remembered as a betrayal of the very principle Weah championed in 2018 – that higher education in Liberia should be a bridge, not a barrier. Dr. Maparyan, listen to your students. They are not asking for luxury. They are asking for chairs, light, bathrooms, and a fee that they can survive on. Anything less is not leadership. It is abandonment.
