Newslex Point News in Uganda, Uganda news
Makerere university contributes 40 per cent of their staff monthly salaries. This is collected from internally generated revenue like fees from private students. However, as it appeared yesterday, the government had not yet paid their quarterly releases which made it difficult for them to operate.
makerere University management yesterday asked government to take over the institution’s wage bill to reduce it’s financial burden.
According to Prof John Ssentamu-Ddumba, the vice chancellor, the university is tired of the frequent unrest at the 94-year-old institution mostly caused by under-funding.
Prof Dumba explained that the government’s decision to halt implementation of the fees policy doesn’t change what the Council, the highest decision making organ at the university, had earlier agreed with the students. “We are fed up with unrest at the university. Some of our staff have been beaten up by striking students, the looting… The government doesn’t pay the entire bill. We want them to take over the entire wage bill like it does in other public universities,” Prof Ddumba told Daily Monitor yesterday.
Prof Ddumba said yesterday they had agreed with Prime Minister Ruhakana Rugunda, in a meeting at the weekend that they work out a document and their needs and submit to the former in a month which will detail the university’s financial needs. In addition, the university will be required to review the fees policy before the beginning of next academic year.
Meanwhile, as the university struggles to find a solution to the students’ demands, the teaching staff through their association, have given an ultimatum to management to have their five months of their unpaid arrears cleared by April 15.
Dr Muhammed Kiggundu, the Makerere University academic staff association chairman, yesterday welcomed the government’s stand on the students’ demands but said they wanted the Shs12.5 billion paid.
The policy
The Council policy states that a student should have paid 60per cent of their fees by the sixth week of a semester and cleared all the tuition by the 12th week. The students begin their final examinations in May.
Students have in the past two weeks protested the management’s decision to implement the policy. Dr Rugunda’s intervention is temporal as the university maintains that students have to pay by April 23. According to Dr Rugunda, the policy has caused more harm than good and wants it revisited.
Source: Monitor
Check Also: To Break Or To Build: Which Way Will Uganda’s Opposition Turn?
Check also: Top 10 best Universities in Africa – 2015
Check also: Top 10 youngest billionaires in Uganda
Please use the button below to contribute to Newslex Point, Inc. using a credit card or via PayPal.
