Nankhumwa speaks again fees hike in public universities

Leader of Opposition, Kondwani Nankhumwa has said the raising of tuition fee in some public universities is unacceptable looking at the prevailing economic climate in which some students are already struggling.

Standing in Parliament, Nankhumwa said for example, the Lilongwe University Agriculture and Natural Resources has just raised its tuition fee from K350,000 to K600,000 which he said is too high.

He alleged that about 2,000 students are already on the verge of withdrawing from public universities on financial grounds and as such, raising the tuition fee is unacceptable despite higher operating costs for the universities.

But leader of the House Richard Chimwendo Banda backed the tuition fees hike by public universities saying the fees were last adjusted in 2016.

He said the cost of operating universities is very high adding that students contribution does not reflect how much government spends on training a student. He stated that it costs K4.5 million to train a student.

The leader of the House said the adjustments which universities initially proposed were more but have been reduced because President Lazarus Chakwera intervened on the matter.