University Council adamant on fee hike: says UNIMA students proposal lack basis

University of Malawi Council has trashed the proposal to have the fees in public universities revised downward, saying the proposal lacks basis.

UNIMA students last week planned to have a vigil this week at CHANCO over the fee hike after the Ministry of Education Science and Technology (MoEST) refused to intervene on the matter, saying it’s not their responsibility.

Before the planned vigil, UMSU met University Council representative on the matter on Monday July 11, 2016 and the discussion yielded no any tangible results.

According to the statement from the Univesity Council seen by FaceofMalawi reporter, the students failed to back up their proposal hence the decision to maintain the fee hike.

“In the final analysis, Council resolved that it could not accept to adopt the UMSU proposals because they were not based on an empirically justified position. Additionally, UMSU did not demonstrate how their low proposed fees could guarantee academic quality for the University whose standards has been the subject of public debate over the years.

“Once this was done, Council observed that UMSU’s proposed fees had no empirical basis. The Council, in turn, offered its own rationale for raising the fees which was primarily based on considerations of maintaining academic quality,” reads the statement in part.

Added the statement: “This rationale arose from the unit cost analysis which demonstrated that for generic and mature entry students, their fees contribution constituted 12% and 25% respectively of the full cost for training a student in the University of Malawi.”

Meanwhile UMSU is yet to respond on the matter.