Equator varsity students bow to pressure, agree to sit exams amid tuition impasse
What you need to know:
- The university was established under an agreement between the government of Uganda and the University of Lahore, Pakistani.
Students at the Masaka-based Equator University of Science and Technology (EQUSaT) have bowed to pressure and agreed to sit the end-of-semester examinations they had boycotted protesting the new zero balance fees policy.
The policy introduced this semester by the university council forced a student protest, including learners cleared to sit the examinations.
According to the university timetable, second year students were supposed to start their exams on April 22 but students refused to turn up saying that the new policy is unfair.
University authorities responded with warning letters to students asking them to justify their decision to skip papers or face disciplinary action.
On Friday, university guild president Ahmed Baryamujura said they managed to arrange a meeting with the administration in which they agreed that students that paid tuition fees be allowed to write their exams.
“The zero-balance policy was not reviewed as the students had wished, but at least there is some relief that those that had tuition issues were given more time to clear fees and exams will be arranged for them,” he added.
However, one of the administrators at the institution who preferred anonymity since he is not allowed to speak to the media said the university authorities are going to ask the university council to allow special exams for students that did not sit exams because of tuition issues.
“In the meeting we had with the students, the administration gave the students three weeks to pay their tuition balances. The university council will look into their issues and give the university permission to arrange exams for them as well,” he noted on Friday.
Most affected learners include students offering bachelors in dental surgery, bachelors in information technology and medicine among others.
Efforts to get a comment from the university acting Vice Chancellor Eng Usama Kassaga did not yield much since he did not respond to repeated telephone calls from this publication by press time.
The students' protest came days after four top university officials including vice chancellor Assoc Prof Harunah Nsubuga left the university under unclear circumstances.
Observers say this could have partly created a leadership crisis at the three-year-old institution. Other officials who exited include head of communications and advertising Shaban Lukooya, university systems administrator Ronald Balimunsi and university auditor Muhammad Waseem.
The university was established under an agreement between the government of Uganda and the University of Lahore, Pakistani. It started enrolling students in 2021.
Currently, it has close to 400 students with some coming from countries like Liberia , Pakistani , Somalia ,Sudan , Kenya, South Sudan , Rwanda ,Tanzania ,Chad, Comoros and Niger.
