Students Union 'Welcomes' University Fees Hike

The Zimbabwe Congress of Students Unions (ZICOSU) said the recent fees hike by tertiary institutions was justified as there is need to capacitate universities given the prevailing economic situation.

The Secretary-General of the government-aligned students’ union, Tinashe Katsiridze, urged the government to come up with a flexible fees payment plan for students to prevent most of them from deferring their studies. Said Katsidzire:

The universities could not avoid increasing fees because they need adequate resources to run the institutions.

The students before the recent tuition fees review were paying as low as $600 per semester which was too little to fund operations.

Meanwhile, the opposition-aligned Zimbabwe National Students’ Union (ZINASU) said the fees are now too high and on Thursday handed a petition to the Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovation, Science and Technology Development Professor Amon Murwira.

State universities hiked fees from around $600.00 per semester to between $5 000.00 and $9 000.00 per semester with effect from this year.

More: Chronicle