Students petition Mak tribunal over tuition hike

KAMPALA. Makerere University students have petitioned the University Guild Tribunal challenging the 15 per cent tuition increment, vowing to proceed to the High Court should it fail to address their complaints.
The students want the guild president, Mr Papa Were, and the other student leaders, who constitute the seven-member adhoc committee, to explain why they did not consult their colleagues before recommending the approval of the policy to the University Council.
Addressing journalists at the university yesterday, the students’ leader, Mr William Mukisa, a student at the School of Law, said the guild committee did not follow the right procedures enshrined in the guild constitution since they were supposed to return the report for discussion with the guild council representatives before forwarding it to management.
“The committee just smuggled the report to the University Council assuring it how they had consulted the students who are the most affected but in reality, no one was consulted since all of us were in holidays,” Mr Mukisa said.
He said the cumulative 15 per cent policy, which is slated for five years, will see the number of students on the university reduce because education will now become expensive for Ugandan parents who are poor.
When contacted, the chairperson of the guild tribunal, Mr Hussein Gullam, a student of Law, said they have received the petition and are waiting for the defence to file a response before fixing the hearing dates.
“We have received the petition, and we have started issuing a summon to file an answer to that petition to everybody who has been named as a defendant. Each one of them has four days to respond and we shall call for a rescheduling meeting before setting the hearing date,” Mr Gullam said in a telephone interview.