Public varsities to hike fees
Some of the country’s public universities are proposing tuition fee hike in the 2016/17 academic year citing rising costs of running the universities, among other reasons for the proposed hike.
Mzuzu University (Mzuni) Vice Chancellor Robert Ridley confirmed that the university has proposed to raise fees for undergraduate programmes from K250 000 ($350) to K300 000 ($420) per year in order to meet increased costs and maintain the quality of teaching and learning.
Ridley said tuition fees were last revised three years ago, and wit inflation running at over 20 percent per year, there has been a significant increase in costs of running the university.
He however said the proposal still has to be discussed by Mzuzu University Council and any increase is also dependent upon approval by government.
“The proposal has been shared with Mzuni students and we are raising the issue now so that students have advance notice of any increase before the start of the next academic year.
“In coming up with the proposal, we have tried to balance the need for additional resources by the University with the ability of students to pay. We have tried to keep the increase to a reasonable level.”
He said Mzuni will also continue to work with stakeholders to generate resources for the Mzuzu University Student Scholarship and Loans Fund so that needy students are supported with their fees.
The University registered 3,985 students in the 2015/16 academic year ,but according to Ridley, the number will increase in 2016/17.
On the other hand, a document that Nation Online has sourced, indicates that the University of Malawi (Unima) has also proposed a fee hike for generic students for its constituent colleges.
According to the document, the Polytechnic College students will be paying K380 000 ($531) per annum from K275 000 ($385), the Chancellor College tuition fee has been pegged at K320 000 ($448), K500 000 ($699) for the College of Medicine and K340 000 ($476) for the Kamuzu College of Nursing.
However, Unima Registrar Benedicto Okomaatani Malunga feigned ignorance on the matter.
Ministry of Education Science and Technology spokesperson Manfred Ndovi also said the Ministry was yet to receive the proposals.
“We are just hearing it from the media. But we are aware that higher education is heavily subsidised in Malawi than any other country in the southern Africa,” he said.
Polytechnic Students Union (PSU) president Frank Mchupuka Msiska said students are worried with the proposals as they are already struggling to pay the current fees.
“After all these challenges we are facing, it is unfair to think of raising tuition fees. People in the country are going through economic challenges and it is not fair to hike fees,” said Msiska.
The proposals come barely a month after President Peter Mutharika ordered Treasury to release fresh funds to rescue some 286 students who withdrew from public universities due to lack of tuition fees and prevent a further 746 students on verge of pulling out of the university system.
The intervention, which was announced by the Higher Education Students Loans and Grants Board, came as a huge relief to the students’ fraternity.
