A continuing undergraduate student at the University of the West Indies (UWI) Five Islands Campus has publicly raised questions about a major gap in the Government of Antigua and Barbuda’s newly announced tuition-free higher education policy, calling for official transparency and clarification for hundreds of similarly affected students.
The anonymous student, who enrolled in their first-ever bachelor’s degree program at the campus in September 2025, submitted a letter to the newsroom outlining their concerns after UWI Five Islands published its 2026/27 academic year guidance document titled *“Your Fees at a Glance: Tuition, the Tuition-Free Policy, and how to pay”*.
According to the official guidance, the government’s new tuition-free initiative will only cover eligible new first-time bachelor’s degree students starting their studies from the 2026/27 academic year onward. To qualify for full coverage of approved tuition costs, students must hold Antiguan and Barbudan citizenship, have no existing bachelor’s degree, secure admission to an eligible program, and sign a formal funding agreement with the Ministry of Education. The guidance explicitly excludes any continuing students who began their programs before the 2026/27 term, requiring these students to continue paying the existing domestic rate.
For the student who submitted the complaint, this exclusion appears arbitrary and unfair. Even though they are pursuing their first bachelor’s degree and meet all other eligibility criteria laid out in the policy, their enrollment one year early means they are locked out of the full tuition coverage the government is offering to incoming students. The student notes that this decision directly impacts the affordability of their education, with no clear rationale provided for the cutoff date.
Beyond their own situation, the concerned student says other continuing first-degree students across the campus are facing the same unfair exclusion, and all affected students deserve clear answers from both the Antigua and Barbuda government and UWI Five Islands administration. The letter calls on journalists to investigate the policy, pressing officials to answer three core questions: Who exactly was the policy intended to cover? Why are continuing first-degree students who enrolled before 2026/27 locked out of coverage? And are there any alternative support programs available for students in this position?
The student has attached the full official policy document and supporting evidence of their enrollment situation to the letter, emphasizing that transparency around this policy is critical to allowing students to plan their academic futures and access affordable higher education.