UNZA students challenged, find means to pay
THE decision to hike accommodation and not tuition fees is meant to provide quality services at the university and will not be reversed, University of Zambia Vice Chancellor Professor Luke Mumba has said.
Prof Mumba has clarified that tuition fees had not been revised as had been reported in some sections of the media.
He said in an interview with the Daily Nation that in as much as students would be affected by the increment, the university had to hike the fees to provide quality services and a conducive learning environment.
Prof Mumba advised students to make use of alternative support mechanisms such as bursaries, loan schemes and the private sector to meet their expenses.
He reiterated that the decision to hike accommodation fees, internet fees and examination fees among others was final as it had been approved by the board.
Prof Mumba said that the increments were invertible for the university to sustain its operations and provide quality services.
“As you may know, providing quality examination at an institution such as this one is not cheap, that is why we had to revise the examination fees from K100 to K50 per subject. So if someone is writing 4 courses, they pay K200.
“It is the same with the other fees we have increased, it’s because we want to be providing quality services to our students as the biggest university in the country,” he said.
Prof Mumba said that the university was still struggling financially and that it needed to do whatever possible to sustain operations and provide quality services.