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Price Controls and Shortages - Index of articles
Universities
defy govt fees freeze
The
Standard (Zimbabwe)
August 19, 2007
THE
Midlands
State University (MSU) has defied a directive by government
for universities to freeze fees, The Standard can reveal.
Other institutions
of higher learning such as the University
of Zimbabwe (UZ) were reportedly considering raising their fees.
MSU two weeks ago told
students fees would go up from $109 000 to between $4 million and
$15 million for the new semester, depending on their academic programmes.
According to a notice
from the Midlands State University senior assistant registrar N
Shava dated 3 August, registration and lectures were due to commence
on 6 August.
But students could only
register once they had paid the required amount.
MSU students who spoke
to The Standard said they were not given reasonable time to raise
the new fees.
The new fee structure
was posted on the university's website, only three days before the
start of the current semester.
"Some of us have
no access to the internet during vacation," said Samuel Dube,
a fourth year student, "so we only got to know about the fees
when we returned to campus."
The students also complained
about the residence fees, pegged at $4 million.
"Such exorbitant
accommodation fees only makes life harder for non-resident students
as landlords in Senga always charge twice the university's residence
fees," said Rumbidzai Mamvura, a student at the university.
Senga residential area
provides alternative accommodation for the students as the university
has limited accommodation.
Houses in Senga also
expose students to health hazards as they are characterised by burst
and blocked sewage pipes.
Amid the fee hikes and
poor living conditions, a group of students from the Faculty of
Social Sciences face the prospect of repeating a semester after
they failed to complete a module because there was no lecturer.
"We are supposed
to be going on attachment this semester but we might not,"
said a student from the faculty. "We will have to pay fees
to repeat the semester and that is our main grievance. It is not
out of our own making that we did not have a lecturer."
The university is experiencing
a critical staff shortage, particularly in the faculties of commerce,
science and technology and natural resource management.
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