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State universities have announced tuition fees ranging from $5 000 to $9 000 per semester depending on the programme. Government directed that State universities must set their full fees, including tuition and accommodation at $5 000 and below per semester for both full-time conventional students and those on block release. The lowest fees at the National University of Science and Technology (Nust) is $5 120 per semester and the highest which is paid by Faculty of Medicine students is $7 500 per semester. 

Those studying medicine at the University of Zimbabwe (UZ) pay $8 755 per semester. The university authorities are insisting that they have complied with the Government directive to peg tuition fees at $5 000 and below per semester but are charging levies which vary according to programme. Government was forced to intervene and cap universities tuition fees at $5 000 after realising that most students could not afford tuition fees above $5 000. 

Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovation, Science and Technology Development Minister Professor Amon Murwira said tuition fees remain capped at $5 000 and below but universities are allowed to charge operational levies. What is worrying is that the levies have pushed the fees to levels that are not affordable to the majority of students. What this means is that higher education is now a preserve of the rich which is against Government policy. 

We totally agree with Nust students’ representative council president Innocent Dondo that the announced fees are just too high given the level of salaries most workers are earning. 

Most civil servants are earning $2 000 or below a month and the situation is the same in the private sector. These are the same people who are expected to pay up to $8 000 fees per semester for themselves or their children. 

There is therefore urgent need to revisit the issue of levies which universities are taking advantage of to charge exorbitant fees. We have said university education should not be a preserve of the rich and as such there is a need to ensure fees are affordable to the majority of students including the poor. 

We appreciate the need for students to pay fees that meet the costs of running the programmes but the fees should remain affordable to most students. Charging exorbitant fees that only the rich can afford is an infringement on the Zimbabweans’ right to education and this is unacceptable.  

We want to once again implore Minister Murwira to revisit the issue of levies so that fees remain affordable to the majority of students. It defeats logic for universities to disregard the levels of salaries most workers are earning because it is from these salaries that university fees are paid.