Universities hike tuition fees
MUBS BOSS: Balunywa
By J. Eremu and F. AHimbisibwe
MAKERERE University Business School (MUBS) has raised fees for private students by up to 30% for some programmes.
The highest increments were in Bachelors of Human Resource Management, Leisure and Hospitality and in Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management, which went up by 29% or sh175, 000, from sh600, 000 to sh775, 000 per semester.
In a similar development, Uganda Christian University, Mukono, also announced yesterday that tuition fees for the next academic year would be raised by sh100,000 for all programmes. The university, which now has a student population of about 3,000, said in a statement that the increment was meant to ‘finance the continuing growth of the university.’
At MUBS, the other courses that saw substantial increment in their tuition include Bachelors of Catering and Hotel Management which rose by sh150,000 from sh700,000 to sh850,000 per semester and Bachelors of Business Computing from sh700,000 to sh825,000.
The new rates come into effect next academic year and affects only new entrants, officials said.
Currently, the tuition fees for some of the courses at Mukono stand between shs400,000 to sh800,000 with Law and Information Technology as the highest, Mass Communication is shs750,000 while Theology is the lowest at shs 400,000. The increment was announced by the Vice Chancellor, Professor Steven Noll.
“Improvements cannot be made for free and administration has worked hard to keep the fees affordable. Furthermore, the fees are competitive with other institutions,” he said in a statement.
The principal, Wasswa Balunywa, was reported out of the country but the acting principal, Dr. Julius Kakuru, said the increment was necessitated by the quest to provide quality education and meet increasing costs of running programmes.
He said some new programmes were introduced at low fees and needed harmonisation with market rates. “We requested for adjustments in tuition primarily for practical courses like Business Computing and Catering,” he said yesterday.
“For the students to get hands-on experience, you need to invest in computers and software development and maintenance. You must have quality.
You can’t pretend to provide quality education without adequate facilities,” he added. Kakuru said catering was an expensive programme because it involved a lot of practicals. “In a situation where students have to learn how to prepare meals, you to go for the quality of ingredients used in hotels. You just don’t buy fruits from anywhere or any type of meat for instance,” Kakuru said.
Under the new fees structure, the tuition for Bachelors of Commerce and Bachelors of Business Administration have been raised from sh750,000 to sh775,000, International Business from sh650,000 to 775,000 and Information Management from sh700,000 to sh775,000.
Ordinary Diploma in Financial Services will pay sh300,000 per semester from sh225,000 while Ordinary Diploma in Secretarial and Information Management will pay sh300,000 from sh200,000.
New Vision: Friday, 23rd April, 2004
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