Of the Likaomba Otherathu syndrome
This week, some of the countr y’s pub l i c universities announced fees adjustments for generic undergraduates and mature entry students. The University of Malawi, for example, raised generic undergraduate fees from K550 000 to K650 000 for one academic year. For mature entry students, the fees is now K1 000 000. But my interest is on undergraduate students.
The other public university that has raised student fees is Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources. I have no doubt it is not a question if but when other institutions of higher learning such as Mzuzu University, Malawi Uni versi ty of Science and Technology, Malawi University of Business and Applied Science and Kamuzu University of Health and Sciences, will follow suit.
The fees adjustment is understandable from the universities’ point of view. During the past one-and-a-half years, the kwacha has been devalued by a total of 28 percent. This is on top of the ever-rising inflation which has shot up prices of most basic commodities. Needless to say, this has also raised the cost of running the universities. By way of comparison, fees in private universities such as the Catholic University of Malawi (Cunima) are double to three times higher than those in public ones. For example, the lowest undergraduates’ tuition fees at Cunima during the 2022/23 academic year was K650 000 per semester, which translates to K1 350 000 per semester, excluding upkeep and accommodation. Tuition fees for other courses like Nursing and Midwifery and Law was K750 000 per semester.
As expected, the fees hike in public universities has raised uproar from some quarters. One such entity is Parliament where the matter raised a heated debate on Thursday. Most opposition members protested the increase arguing the development will make thousands of academically capable students fail to access tertiary education in the country.
T h e member s o f Parliament have a point. If thousands of students were not able to pay the tuition fees at K550 000, how will they be able to do so with the higher amount? But government through Minister of Local Government R ichard Chimwendo- Banda, standing in for her counterpart in the Ministry of Education Madalitso Wirima justified the tuition fees hike saying the cost of educating one student in one academic year has also increased to K4.1million. Meaning that undergraduate students are only paying 12.5 percent of the total tuition fees that government spends on them.
Taken literally, one would think public universities are really justified to raise the tuition fees. But truth is that the universities are only doing so because they are greatly underfunded. Government has other priorities on which it is spending humongous sums of taxpayers’ money at the expense of human capital development. Government will always talk about limited fiscal space in the national budget to adequately fund social sectors like higher education, health and other areas. But from the same small resource envelope, government will never fail to buy brand new four-by-fours for its Cabinet Ministers at every opportunity.
Very close to us, Zambian P r e s ident Haka inde Hichilema is saving billions from the national budget with a declaration that government will not buy fuel-guzzling automobiles for its Cabinet Ministers and that those members of his Cabinet who want to drive such vehicles should take bank loans.
The move is paying dividends. Such austerity measures have been implemented in various sectors and the results are bearing fruit.
Not too l ong ago, another neighbour, the late Tanzanian president John Magufuli had similar fiscal policies. He drastically cut all foreign travel. For example, during the entire five or so years he was president, he never flew to the annual ritual performed in New York in September and October called UNGA. Results? Tanzania was able to save billions, resources and policies that have put our eastern neighbour on a positive economic growth trajectory.
Why are our leaders not able to do the same? Chartering a plane for just one trip for the President to New York in the USA costs an arm and a leg. I have lost count how many times the President has flown out of the country in the past two months. Those are billions lost.
But what has been the return on investment from such endless trips? These are the things government prioritises at the expense of education. So if you ask me if public universities are justified to raise tuition fees for undergraduates, you have the answer. They are doing so because government has other priorities. Likaomba otherathu
