The Vanguard Students Unification Party (SUP) at the University of Liberia has issued a strongly worded statement warning the Government of Liberia and the University of Liberia administration against any attempt to abolish the country’s free tuition policy at the state-run university.
Addressing a press conference on Monday, May 18, 2026, SUP said the administration of UL, led by its President Layli Maparyan and the Unity Party-led government, is attempting to pursue policies that would worsen the economic hardships facing students.
SUP said ending free tuition would place an unbearable burden on more than 22,000 students already struggling with poverty, unemployment, and rising living costs, noting that the UL administration should not justify the cancellation of free tuition by the rising costs of petroleum. The student-based group said there are still inadequate transportation services for students while senior officials allegedly receive high salaries.
“The Free Tuition policy was instituted because of structural poverty, unemployment and economic exclusion,” the statement said, adding that any move to reverse the policy would face “revolutionary resistance,” SUP said.
According to the group, it will mobilize students against any attempt to end free tuition, warning that such a decision could spark nationwide protests. The group also criticized civil society organizations and religious leaders for what it described as their silence on issues of governance and accountability.
“Your refusal to speak out against this blatant overreach is a betrayal of the public trust,” the statement asserted. Meanwhile, civil society group, Solidarity for A New Day (STAND), has likewise accused UL of “Waging Economic War on Students”, warned against the LD$10,000 “Registration Hike.”
In a release issued on May 17, 2026, STAND strongly condemned the reported decision by the University of Liberia administration, announced on Lux FM, to increase registration fees to LD$10,000 while students and struggling families are being crushed by one of the hardest economic conditions in recent history.
The group said that at a time when taxes are rising without mercy, transportation fares are skyrocketing, and the prices of food, basic commodities, and essential social services continue climbing daily, adding more pressure on poor students and suffering parents is wicked, heartless, and unacceptable.
STAND says the proposed LD$10,000 registration fee is an economic war against struggling students and hardly employed parents whose salaries and incomes have already been destroyed by the unbearable cost of living.
Instead of punishing poor students, the government must subsidize the University of Liberia and absorb any operational difficulties the administration claims to face, especially while millions are being spent elsewhere and new banknotes are about to enter circulation.
According to the group, education must not become a privilege for the wealthy while ordinary Liberian children are pushed out of the classroom by poverty and bad governance, calling for an immediate reversal of the decision.
