It is not every day that we hear good news from Uganda Christian University (UCU) – but when we do, we are really pleased.
At their recent graduation ceremony, the UCU vice chancellor, Dr John Senyonyi, announced that the university council had decided to keep tuition fees constant for students from the year of entry to graduation.
He explained that this was carried out to allow parents and guardians to plan better for their students’ education. That same council meeting in November 2015 resolved that international students’ tuition fees be reduced to 1.5 times that of home students. Previously, international students paid twice the amount paid by home students.
In these hard times, it is always commendable to see someone who is willing to give back to society. UCU has been raising tuition fees annually in a bid to build the institution’s basic facets over time.
As inconveniencing as this was for parents and guardians, there is evidence that some good has come of it. The evidence from last week’s universities’ expo shows that UCU has established some commendable capacity in research and teaching in the humanities, indicating that the funds generated have largely gone to good use.
So, it is no surprise that UCU is willing to give parents and guardians a chance to better plan how to pay for the education of their students. And for that, we commend UCU, in the hope that the gesture will last.
For their part, we hope that UCU will continue their onward trajectory towards improvements in research and training of students. We also expect that the funds generated will also continue to be put to good use.
Finally, we also hope that other private universities that are in the practice of increasing tuition fees every year are watching UCU’s gesture for inspiration.
school@observer.ug