Luanar tuition fees hiked to K250 000
Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (Luanar) has hiked fees for government-sponsored students from K55 000 (US$133) to K250 000 (US$607) per academic year.
The hike comes after University of Malawi (Unima) raised the fees to K275 000. Luanar was born out of Unima after the delinking of Bunda College of Agriculture, its constituent college.
Confirming the hike on Wednesday, Luanar spokesperson Bessie Milanzi said the hike has been influenced by high cost of living over the years.
She said when the fees was at K55 000, it was 20 percent of the unit cost, and now K250 000 is about 20 percent of the annual unit cost.
According to Milanzi, government already approved the university’s recommendation to hike the fees.
However, Milanzi noted that the hike is not enough for the smooth running of the university.
“We looked at what would be 20 percent of the current unit cost; the K250 000 is just a contribution that students are to make to their education. The actual cost is higher and government does not subsidise fees for all students,” she said.
In an interview, Civil Society Education Coalition (Csec) executive director Benedicto Kondowe said there is need for the Council for Higher Education to provide a strategic direction for the public universities to, among other issues, ensure that they harmonise the fees and make them move towards specialisation.
“The public universities offer many programmes that are similar; hence, it would be difficult to justify the existence of different tuition fees,” said Kondowe.
