John Odyek and Paul Kiwuwa
19 November 2008
Kampala — LEGISLATORS yesterday backed Makerere University's position to charge students a development fee of sh123,500 and a technology fee of sh50,000.
The decision follows a recent petition to the Parliament by the students over what they called exorbitant fees.
The development fee was charged on first-year students and the technology fee was to be paid by all students.
State minister for higher education Gabriel Opio and the university council chairman, Mathew Rukikaire, appeared before the committee on social services to give their views on the petition.
Later in a closed meeting, the committee deliberated on the views of the students, the university management and the Government.
Rosemary Ssenninde, the chairperson of the committee, said the committee could not stop the university from charging the fees.
"The committee is also asking the Government to increase its funding to the university and other public universities. The universities cannot run without funds," she added.
Ssenninde said 62% of the students had already paid the fees, adding that asking the remaining 38% not to pay could cause problems.
Rukikaire said the decision to charge a library development fee was intended to raise money to build a state of the art library with information technology facilities.
The Carnegie Corporation of the US had offered the university a grant of $2m (about sh3.8b) towards the project, Rukikaire said.
The university's contribution to the project would be to set up a sh3.2b building, he added.
He explained that a two-year delay to put up the building was making Carnegie Corporation anxious.
Prof. Livingstone Luboobi, the vice-chancellor, said the university risked losing the grant because of the delay.
Luboobi disclosed that cabinet had authorised the university to borrow sh3.2b from a local bank to set up the building, but it had to pay back the loan from fees.
The technology fee is intended to pay for Internet bills and bandwidth, he said.
"Donors have been paying for these bills but they are winding up the project. We have to pay the bills. If the Internet goes off, there can be a strike at the university," Luboobi observed.
He told the committee that all students were expected to pay their fees in full.
"Students who do not complete their fees will not be allowed to sit for exams," Luboobi warned.
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