In, August 2024, the Academic Registrar of Makerere University, Prof Buyinza Mukadasi, wrote to the college principals and deans of schools informing them about the enforcement of student enrollment and registration in accordance with the university’s fees policy of 2016.
In his letter, he stated that the Central Management Committee meeting on August 19, 2024, recognized the challenging financial circumstances self/privately-sponsored students face, but the university has an obligation to collect non-tax revenue.
He further noted that the Central Management Committee resolved that colleges must exclude students who have not cleared their tuition balance from accessing services like lectures, progressive assessments (e.g., coursework), examinations, research proposals, research supervision, and others.
It also resolved that school registrars should submit student enrollment reports, and failure to submit those reports will lead to sanctions, including disciplinary actions.
In July 2024, the university management decided to block students’ results on the Academic Management System for those who had not cleared all fees. Implementation of this policy will limit education accessibility. The implementation of this policy will negatively affect students’ ability to access education, and many will drop out.
Last year, nearly 3,000 students were unable to sit for their end-of-semester exams for the academic year 2023/24 because they could not clear tuition fees. Indeed, those statistics align with the statement made by Makerere University Vice Chancellor Professor Barnabas Nawangwe in April last year while appearing before the Education Committee of Parliament, where he confirmed that the university loses more than 1,000 students every year due to failure to clear tuition.
Therefore, if this policy is implemented, Makerere University will lose more than 5,000 students every year, yet the university’s enrollment every year is around 10,000 students. Hence, access to education at Makerere University will be affordable only to students from rich families and those on different scholarship programs.
While the university council approved the employment student work scheme, where students will engage in community service within the university and their earnings will be used to cover their fees, the fact is that this scheme can help less than one per cent of students struggling to get tuition.
Well, academic services offered by the university cannot be sustained by fees alone, even if Makerere University collected 99 per cent of the fees. The revenue collected cannot finance even 40 per cent of Makerere University’s annual budget, as the huge portion of Makerere University’s budget is financed through grants.
Recommendations:
Education is a social service and must not be treated as a business because it has social justice implications. We should never use fees to limit access to social services such as education because education is an equalizer, not a symbol of privilege.
The government, through the ministry of Education and Sports, should reconsider financing through the students’ scheme, expanding it to cater to more than 10,000 students annually, considering students in arts courses and adding numbers for continuing students.
The university should focus on sensitizing and spreading information about the flexible payment plan, as more than 70 per cent of Makerere University students are unaware of the existing flexible payment plan, where students pay tuition in monthly installments or quarterly basis.
This payment plan is only communicated to students on orientation day, when they report to campus on their first day. Yet, out of around 10,000 students, less than 2,000 students attend.
The university management and student guild leaders should find a mutually-beneficial solution and provide support to low-income students instead of management suspending all non-academic and sporting gatherings and suspending students advocating for access to quality education.
The imposition of surcharges on students who make late tuition payments should be declared unlawful and abolished through a parliamentary resolution and university council decision.
Stakeholders need to keep in mind that 41 per cent of Ugandans live below the poverty line, and continuing to impose such radical policies that increase the cost of higher education only eliminates many, as they cannot afford to sustain it with various living costs.
The writer is a former students Guild minister at Makerere University and Fellow of Young Leaders Forum 2024
