’Varsity fees hike angers Parliament

Members of Parliament (MPs) yesterday condemned government’s move to allow public universities to raise tuition fees, saying it will worsen students’ dropout rates.

Some public iniversities issued circulars a week ago notifying continuing and newly-selected students that tuition fees have been adjusted upwards.

But speaking in Parliament yesterday, Leader of Opposition Kondwani Nankhumwa lamented that not all students will afford the new fees.

He raised the issue under Standing order 14 of Parliament which tackles Matters of Public Interest and received huge support from MPs.

Nankhumwa said some universities have raised their fees by almost 100 percent, citing the Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (Luanar).

He said: “For example, Luanar has raised tuition for undergraduate students from K350 000 to K600 000, and for the mature entry students tuition, has gone up to K1 million. This is not fair.”

Nankhumwa argued that much as universities are facing high operational costs, the citizenry’s suffering is equally big with commodity prices rising every day.

But Leader of the House Richard Chimwendo Banda said university fees were last revised in 2016 and the pressure has been piling on government.

He said it costs K4.5 million a year to train one student and looking at the fees universities charge, a huge gap is covered by government subvention.

On education loans, Chimwendo Banda said when the Tonse Alliance came to power, 13 000 students were on loan scheme but the current government has raised the figure to 25 000.

“For us to give all university students loans, we need K4 billion and to raise this amount, we need to start here in this House. We should make some sacrifices for children to access tertiary education,” he said.

Contributing on the motion, Mulanje Bale legislator Victor Musowa said apart from the high University fees, students are surviving on cassava and banana’s because they cannot afford proper meals.

He also touched on the cost of accomodation which he said has reached prohibitive levels for the poor while the reach are accessing education easily.

Also taking her turn, Machinga East parliamentarian Esther Jolobala said MPs are under pressure to support many students who cannot afford fees on their own.

Several MPs such as Yeremiya Chihana of Mzimba Nort and William Susuwere Banda of Zomba Lisanjala spoke in favour of the motion.

Meanwhile, education experts have backed the move by iniversities to hike fees, citing operational costs.

In an interview, Edukans executive director Limbani Nsapato said the fees hike is reasonable considering the cost of living and that fees were last raised in 2016.

He said: “The current hike is even peanuts if you consider that the unit cost in public universities is at least K4 million per year. Some courses like medicine or engineering may cost even as high as K5 million or K7 million per student per year.

“If we use the K4 million figure, it means government is asking parents to contribute K650 000 [16 percent of total] while government is contributing K3 350 000 [84 percentof total].”

Nsapato added that the requested amount is less than what some reputable secondary school students are paying.

“Take for example the circular from the Episcopal Conference of Malawi (ECM) asking for a raise of fees in Catholic secondary schools to K230 000 per term, translating to K690 000 per year in a secondary school. So a university student is being asked to pay less than a secondary school student,” he argued.