MONROVIA – The University of Liberia (UL) has started disbursing outstanding payments to its adjunct faculty, following the release of funds from the Government of Liberia through the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning (MoFDP). According to a statement issued by UL on Thursday, September 11, 2025, payments initially targeted Ecobank account holders and are now being extended to other banking institutions.
UL Comptroller Mr. Togar Gibson assured that all outstanding payments for adjunct faculty and those who taught overload courses will be completed next week. He disclosed that the MoFDP provided LD$50.7 million to cover arrears exclusively for the first semester of the 2024/2025 academic year. This represents the second half of the planned payment, with the first 50 percent having been made in August 2025.
Mr. Gibson further revealed that the UL Administration is actively engaging the MoFDP to secure an additional LD$71 million to cover liabilities from the recent vacation school and to settle all remaining faculty payments. “We are thankful to the Government of Liberia, through the MoFDP, for the additional funding and its unwavering support to keep the University operational,” Mr. Gibson said. “Faculty and staff remain a top priority of the UL Administration, and we are determined to provide the fiscal space for them to be effective and efficient.”
He explained that delays in paying adjunct faculty for the first semester were due to a budgetary adjustment, in which US$1 million was redirected to settle arrears from the 2023/2024 academic year.
Meanwhile, the President of the Adjunct Faculty Association of the University of Liberia (AFA-UL), Madam Wilhelmina Garr Stevens, confirmed that members have begun receiving their payments. “I can confirm that I have been paid, just like most of my colleagues,” she said, citing notifications from the association’s chatroom showing members being credited across different banks. Several adjunct faculty members expressed appreciation through telephone interviews with UL Relations, commending the Administration’s prompt action. They noted assurances from UL authorities that arrears for vacation school classes will be settled once the remaining US$550,000 is received.
The payments follow a suspension of all academic activities at UL on August 29, 2025, after an Emergency General Assembly convened by the University of Liberia Faculty Association (ULFA) on the Capitol Hill campus. The suspension was prompted by unresolved concerns affecting faculty welfare, despite earlier engagements with the university administration and other stakeholders.
ULFA recalled that at a constitutional General Assembly on July 18, 2025, its Executive Committee was mandated to engage the University of Liberia administration on pressing issues within one month. These concerns included poor sanitary conditions, delays in faculty promotions, salary disparities, social security contributions, challenges facing study-leave colleagues, and renovation of UL campuses. More recent grievances cited by ULFA included outstanding payments for overload and vacation school salaries.
“Due to these unresolved outstanding issues, the faculty voted unanimously at today’s emergency general assembly to stay away from all academic activities until a negotiated Collective Bargaining Agreement addressing all ULFA issues is signed by the University of Liberia Administration, the Government of Liberia, and ULFA,” the association stated. ULFA emphasized that classes and other related programs will only resume once a fair agreement addressing salary disparities, payment of adjunct faculty arrears, unresolved promotion matters, and campus facility conditions is reached.
The association maintained that the welfare of faculty members cannot be compromised and that disengagement will continue until the administration and government take decisive action.
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