Relief as varsities cut tuition fees in new academic year
What you need to know:
For a long time, there have been complaints from students, parents and stakeholders that tuition fees and other administration costs charged were too high.
Dar es Salaam. Prospective applicants for higher learning studies in the 2017/18 academic year have something to smile about as some private institutions are slashing tuition fees in efforts to attract students.
For a long time, there have been complaints from students, parents and stakeholders that tuition fees and other administration costs charged were too high.
The move comes after the reintroduction of direct admission system for higher education meaning universities have to compete for students.
From 2010/11 academic year the government deployed the central admission system which was coordinated by the Tanzania Commission for Universities (TCU) and assured all universities with students.
The fee reduction has so far been announced by Tumaini University Dar es Salaam College (Tudarco) and the University of Bagamoyo (UoB).
Speaking to The Citizen yesterday, Tudarco’s Vice Chancellor for Administration, Dr Joyce Chonje, said the decision aims at attracting many applicants hence increase enrolment in the coming academic year. The fee has dropped to Sh1.85 million from Sh2.3 million which was introduced in 2013; however, the changes won’t apply to continuing students.
The senior official said the decision was not influenced by the government but was made by the university senate. “With this decision, we hope to increase the enrolment, however, continuing students will pay the previous rate of Sh2.3 million per programme until further notice,” she said.
She added that the college was not under pressure over economic hardship facing the country, but they would link their operations to available resources.
The spokesperson of the University of Bagamoyo (UoB), Ms Happiness Katabazi, confirmed about the reduction but could not go into details, saying such information could only be obtained from Vice Chancellor Prof Costa Mahalu.
Prof Mahalu’s phone went unanswered, but he later sent a message saying that he was in a meeting.
The UoB is one of the institutions which were blacklisted by the TCU from admitting new students in the 2017/18 academic year until they addressed the shortcomings pointed out to them over standard requirements.
Reached for comment, TCU spokesman Edward Mkaku said the Commission hasn’t instructed the universities to lower their charges, but insisted that all leaning institutions should observe the indicative fee.
