High Court Rules UZ Fees Structure Resembles A Tuckshop
The High Court of Zimbabwe has set aside last year’s fees increase by the University of Zimbabwe (UZ) for undergraduate and postgraduate studies.
UZ students filed an urgent chamber application in September 2022 seeking an order reversing the 700 percent fee hike.
Undergraduate students were required to pay ZWL$500 000 while Masters students were required to pay a million for each semester.
In their application, the students, who were represented by the UZ Students Representative Council (SRC), said the raising of fees by the institution was unreasonable and irrational since the government had allocated $3.3 billion in the National Budget approved by the Parliament.
They submitted to the court that they could not afford the fees since most of them come from poor backgrounds.
In his ruling, High Court Judge, Justice Tawanda Chitapi, ordered that the fees increase, effected by UZ, be set aside.
Justice Chitapi further ordered UZ to pay the costs of the application incurred during the process. He ruled:
The first respondent (UZ Vice Chancellor Paul Mapfumo) was quite expected to be guided by the University Act which is clear on what powers he has as well as the powers of the Council and Senate.
It was quite astonishing that even the issue of payment of the increased fees was reduced to a tuckshop operation where discounts were given to students depending on the percentage of the total fees due if paid by a given date.
In a notice dated 01 September 2022, UZ stated that those who were to pay 100 percent of their fees by the 31st of October 2022 were to enjoy a 12.5 percent discount.
It said those who pay 75 percent of their fees by 31 of October will enjoy a 10 percent discount while those that pay 50 percent will enjoy a 5 percent discount.
More: Pindula News
