Makerere University Students Riot over Fees Policy

Tension is mounting at Makerere University where students are protesting a requirement to clear tuition fees by the tenth week of the semester. 

The university policy requires students to pay at least 60 percent of their tuition fees by the sixth week of the semester and 100 percent by the tenth week of the semester.  

This implies that students should have cleared 100 percent tuition fees seven weeks to the start of the end of semester examinations. Only students who have paid 100 percent fees are allowed to sit for examinations. This semester examinations are scheduled to start on May 9.

The university says that the policy is intended to improve the management of Makerere. Uganda Radio Network has learnt that the university administration held a meeting with student leaders last evening and upheld their stance on the policy.

The Vice Chancellor Prof Sentamu Ddumba reportedly told them that they had no choice but to obey the directive. 

But the students say that they do not have the capacity to clear tuition within the stipulated time frame. They are demanding for the cancellation of the policy.

There is heavy police deployment in and around Makerere University where all official activities have now been suspended. The students have locked the Vice Chancellor in his office and disrupted lectures.

Last year similar scenes were witnessed at the University prompting the administration of Makerere University to halt a policy which required students to clear 100 percent of the tuition by the end of the sixth week from the start of the semester.

The cancellation followed an appeal by students calling for a review of the policy.

The students are also using the protest to express outrage at reports that one of the University Lectures in the faculty of Natural Sciences raped a first year student.  The Lecture was arrested over the weekend following a complaint by the student, who lived in the lecturers garage at the university campus.