By Dickson Namisi.
A couple of years ago, I experienced a similar strike like that of Makerere University in Johannesburg at Witwatersrand University, where students protested high fees structures that they claimed hindered their access to education which was everyone’s right.

Indeed, during the presidential elections, their former President H.E Jacob Zuma had promised free education and health care for all in his Manifesto under which he was voted into power. Unfortunately, during the strike, he held a press conference but didn’t offer any justification about the increment of the fees structures in public Universities.

By then the Chancellor of the University, Adam Habib out rightly supported the students, claiming their reason was legit enough to justify the strike.

However, the strike syndrome in Makerere University is affected by a series of events, politics notwithstanding. In a critical analysis, legit reasons for the unrest in Makerere kick started on tuition increment but later diverted into individual and political reasons that couldn’t uphold the actual values of the strike.

It should stick in the minds of various stake holders affected worldwide that students don’t hit themselves on the street for fun but in most cases, they call for a listening ear to allow them express their seemingly oppressed opinions towards a prevailing circumstance.

Differing from the Witwatersrand University in South Africa where the President pledged free education in public Universities during the presidential campaign, Makerere involved all stake holders including the student council that is represented by the Student’s Guild and His vice Guild President, which justified open dialogue between the students and the University administrative council that held several sessions to resolve on the tuition increment policy.

It should be noted that, the new tuition increment policy for Makerere University came into effect in July 2018 and was approved following a report of the Special Committee of Guild Representatives and provided for a new tuition structure with a 15 percent adjustment on all undergraduate programmes starting with 2018/2019 intake.

It should be highlighted that, the tuition adjustments are enrolled for over a five-year period which implies a 75 percent increase on the 2017/2018 base tuition fees, 2018/2019 and 2022/2023.

When the fees policy was passed in July 2018, Management worked with the students’ guild leadership to sensitize the students’ community on the new policy. The modest adjustment in tuition fees was necessary because of the ever-increasing costs.

The university has to ensure quality education which requires modern laboratory equipment, modern delivery platforms and adequate IT infrastructure among others which are certainly very costly and couldn’t be fully covered by current levels of government subsidies.

This notwithstanding, the policy took into consideration the current and projected economic circumstances in the country as well as the fact that Makerere University is a public institution, which accommodates students that are sponsored by Government, Master Card Foundation, State House while others are beneficiaries of the Higher Education Students Loan Scheme that help in covering the inequality literacy gap for the willing citizens but find it hard to continue with education, some on academic merit appreciation.

The unseen facts within the context of the strike are not out laid to clearly define the holistic objectives in the tuition increment policy, for example, the fees charged at Makerere University shall still be far below the current recommendations by government on the unit cost. This justifies the unit cost for the Bachelor of Science in Agriculture as recommended by the Auditor General to be UGX 6.2 million per year while National Council for Higher Education recommended UGX 9.4 million per year.

Both agencies recommend a unit cost of UGX 10.5 million per year for the Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery Degree, yet amidst the hate tantrums thrown towards Makerere University, even with the adjustments in the fees paid by students, Makerere University will still be lower than what many other universities in Uganda are currently charging.

Given the fact that the current tuition increment policy was student-led in July 2018, it justifies the uniqueness that, the protracted negotiation between students and the University Council was concluded in favor of students. In a nutshell, students should calm down, play their part and stay away from politics.