Makerere is indeed an ivory tower!
Aug 20, 2007
Letter of the day <br><br>EDITOR—On August 18, the new Vision published a story entitled “MUK tightens fees policyâ€. It was reported that beginning this academic year all dues at Makerere University must be paid on the first day.
Letter of the day
EDITOR—On August 18, the new Vision published a story entitled “MUK tightens fees policyâ€. It was reported that beginning this academic year all dues at Makerere University must be paid on the first day.
Failure to do that will mean a student cannot be allowed to register, attend lectures or tutorials! What is wrong with Makerere administrators? The day university education in Uganda was privatised, things fell apart. Prof Mahmood Mamdani’s analysis of Makerere’s woes was spot-on.
Makerere has become a marketplace selling education with the ruthlessness and insensitivity of Shylock! They really want their pound of flesh! The administrators at Makerere seem to live in a world of their own! The fees as they are at the moment are already high enough without complicating the matter any further.
Indeed, many students every now and then have had to apply for dead years due to lack of fees. This does not seem to bother the Makerere gurus. The students must pay or get out! I wonder why Makerere must still be called a public university with this kind of mentality.
The Government should pull out of funding any university so that university education becomes purely private instead of pushing people against the wall.
There is simply no room for manoeuvre because it was reported in the same article that students who have not paid up and registered will not be allowed to apply for a dead year and will have to reapply and compete with the new applicants! Where does Makerere think all this money is supposed to come from?
Is it because lecturers’ children are taken care of by the system?
makerere might be in dire need of money but the citizens of this country should not be held at ransom in such a manner. Paying fees for only one student is already tough enough.
What happens to a parent who has two or three children at university? Besides, is fees the only obligation parents have? People are already labouring enough with fees at all levels! Makerere has itself to blame.
Because money meant everything, when higher education was privatised, Makerere started admitting students in a stampede with the result that student population outstripped all other resourses. Now they hope to solve the mess with draconian policies! Makerere has lived to its description as an ivory tower!
Name withheld
EDITOR—On August 18, the new Vision published a story entitled “MUK tightens fees policyâ€. It was reported that beginning this academic year all dues at Makerere University must be paid on the first day.
Failure to do that will mean a student cannot be allowed to register, attend lectures or tutorials! What is wrong with Makerere administrators? The day university education in Uganda was privatised, things fell apart. Prof Mahmood Mamdani’s analysis of Makerere’s woes was spot-on.
Makerere has become a marketplace selling education with the ruthlessness and insensitivity of Shylock! They really want their pound of flesh! The administrators at Makerere seem to live in a world of their own! The fees as they are at the moment are already high enough without complicating the matter any further.
Indeed, many students every now and then have had to apply for dead years due to lack of fees. This does not seem to bother the Makerere gurus. The students must pay or get out! I wonder why Makerere must still be called a public university with this kind of mentality.
The Government should pull out of funding any university so that university education becomes purely private instead of pushing people against the wall.
There is simply no room for manoeuvre because it was reported in the same article that students who have not paid up and registered will not be allowed to apply for a dead year and will have to reapply and compete with the new applicants! Where does Makerere think all this money is supposed to come from?
Is it because lecturers’ children are taken care of by the system?
makerere might be in dire need of money but the citizens of this country should not be held at ransom in such a manner. Paying fees for only one student is already tough enough.
What happens to a parent who has two or three children at university? Besides, is fees the only obligation parents have? People are already labouring enough with fees at all levels! Makerere has itself to blame.
Because money meant everything, when higher education was privatised, Makerere started admitting students in a stampede with the result that student population outstripped all other resourses. Now they hope to solve the mess with draconian policies! Makerere has lived to its description as an ivory tower!
Name withheld