The President of the University of Liberia has categorically denied ever planning to increase tuition at the state university from LD$175 to USD5 per credit hour as has been widely speculated.

The speculation is a complete misinformation designed and spread by a group of people that perhaps intend to create confusion, a university release said Monday.

The President of the University of Liberia, Dr Emmet A. Dennis recently proposed to the Board of Trustee $1 increment in tuition per credit hour for undergraduate studies in accordance with a proposal submitted and approved by the Board of Trustees nearly four years ago.

Students took to the campus recently protesting against plans for an increase in tuition after which a legislator criticised the UL administration for such a move, asking fellow lawmakers to summon the administration for an explanation.

"Regrettable, people who did not get the information correctly, or perhaps intending to create confusion, widely speculated the information that the President had announced an increase in tuition from USD$250 ($175 LD equivalent) to USD$5 ($350 LD equivalent per credit hour. We, therefore, want to caution people who disseminate information to always ascertain the facts, including the mass media," the release said.

The release explained that four years ago, upon the presentation of a program to improve the quality of education at the University of Liberia by the current leadership, the Board of Trustees of the university approved a plan for gradual increase in tuition over a three-year period from LD equivalent of USD$1.40 per credit to the LD equivalent of US$5 per credit hour.

As a result, tuition was increased from US$1.40 per credit to US$2.50, an LD equivalent of $175 per credit.

Based on this plan, the President said, he proposed to increase tuition from US$2.50 to US$3.50, an equivalent of $245. "It is this US$1.00 increment that people misinterpreted to the public," the President explained in a release signed by Dr. S. Momolu Getaweh, UL Vice President, UL Relations.