UGANDA: Students protest 'discriminatory' fees

Late last year, Kenyan students enrolled at Makerere University, Uganda's most famous institution, protested against 'discriminatory' foreign student fees and other charges. As with many other universities around the world, Makerere charges differential rates for domestic and international students with those from East Africa pay around 1.5 times the local rate.

Universities in Uganda and across East Africa - such as Moi and Kenyatta in Kenya and Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania - generally require international students to pay 20-25% more than local students. Still, the costs of studying in Uganda remain cheaper than in other countries in the region.

In early November, local newspapers reported that around 600 Kenyan students had rioted, blocking the entrance to Makerere's main building and holding Vice-chancellor Professor Livingstone Luboobi and other senior staff hostage until police intervened. Students complained they were being charged an additional 35,720 Kenyan shillings (US$470) as "functional fees" - representing a 50% increase this academic year.

Makerere argued the functional fee was aimed at improving library services and paying for greater internet bandwidth to improve research, learning and teaching. It was being levied in line with institutional policy of differential rates, had been passed by the university council two years ago and was implemented this academic year.

More than 7,000 Kenyan students are enrolled at Makerere. At some universities, such as Kampala International University, there are nearly as many Kenyan as Ugandan students.

Makerere spokesman, Gilbert Kadilo, told journalists that Uganda was attracting lots of regional students because it provided "cheap but good" higher education. During the disruption at Makerere, the Daily Nation reported that a month earlier Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni had written to the chair of council, Mathew Rukikaire, asking him to resolve the matter.

It was also reported that Museveni had ordered all universities to charge Ugandan and international students the same fees - a directive that met with mixed reactions in the country and in parliament where some MPs argued it would adversely affect higher education opportunities for Ugandans.

Makerere's Academic Registrar, Amos Olal-Odur, said local students were charged less than those from other countries in recognition of Ugandan tax payers' contribution to funding core university costs.

On 26 October, Olal-Odur sent all international students a circular reporting that a non-registered Kenyan students' association had petitioned parliament, arguing there should be no difference in fees for local and international students - and that students from East Africa especially should pay the same as Ugandan students.

He added the university's management was well aware of a resolution adopted that month by the East African Community assembly requiring universities to charge all regional students the same fees. But he said the decision would only come into effect once it had been agreed by the region's five heads of state.

In Kenya, some universities charge East African students similar fees as local students but Olal-Odor argued that in some cases Makerere's fees were around a third of those imposed by universities in the region, and that the university believed it treated regional students fairly compared to many other universities in East Africa.

Within Uganda, differential fees charged to international students vary by institution. Bugema University, a destination for many international students and especially students from Zambia, charges foreign students 25% more than local students on professional courses. At Uganda Christian University Mukono, international students pay around double the fees of local students.

So why did only Kenyan students protest and not other international students at Makerere from countries such as Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Somalia or Norway?

Some Kenyan students claimed to have lost bursaries since the formation of a coalition government in their country last year. Also, not all Kenyan students supported the protests - there are divisions within Kenyan student bodies, some said to be tribal and political.

Kenyan students in Uganda are also not all agreed about whether education in the country is cheaper and a little better than in their country - just over half of 70 Kenyan students surveyed believed it was, others not.

The Makerere council is to meet and adopt a common position on Museveni's order to charge local and international students the same fees.