Students win court victory over readmission to college

A Malawian court has dismissed a bid by a constituent college of the University of Malawi to overturn an injunction against it forcing students to sign readmission forms and pay for repair work to property damaged during protests in July, which resulted in the college’s closure.

Students had obtained the injunction restraining Chancellor College from collecting damages money and compelling them to sign readmission forms, as the college prepared to re-open.

Student protests ended in mid-August when Malawi’s President Peter Mutharika bowed to pressure and slashed university fees, following fee protests that resulted in the arrests of more than 30 students.

At Chancellor College in Zomba, police arrested some 11 students. A further 14 students were detained at Malawi Polytechnic in Blantyre, and in the capital Lilongwe, seven students from Kamuzu College of Nursing – another constituent college of the University of Malawi – were arrested during similar protests.

Chancellor College – which was closed during the protests but was later ordered by the president to re-open following his meeting with student leaders – issued readmission forms that among other things required each student to agree to college conditions and to pay a MWK1,500 (US$2) fee for renovation of damaged property before commencement of classes.

The readmission forms required students to bind themselves to rules and regulations relating to conduct and behaviour, as approved by the University of Malawi and the country’s criminal laws. They also had to agree to be held liable for prosecution if found to contravene the law.

Failure to sign the forms by Friday 9 September, the university authorities said, would be tantamount to students expressing that they were no longer interested in re-registering and the college would not readmit them.

High Court ruling

In its ruling, Malawi’s High Court said it had noted that the issue of readmission was serious. Reversing the right of admission to already admitted students was illegal, irrational and improper.

Malawi’s Times newspaper quoted the president of the Students' Union of Chancellor College, Silvester Ayuba James, as saying that the High Court had granted the students an injunction stopping the college administration from implementing an exercise that effectively meant all students had been expelled.

“We are now free from the conditions which the college administration imposed on us. Some students who could not raise the readmission fees will be attending classes and we will all be enjoying our right [to education].”

What the president said

At the height of the strike Mutharika, who presided over nearly a year of academic freedom protests when he was higher education minister, agreed to meet about 15 student leaders to seek a solution to the fees impasse.

Before the meeting, the president told students he did not want them to believe that higher education was free. He said his government cared about those who could not afford to pay fees, which is why it increased the student loan facility in the budget.

Mutharika said the problems at Malawi’s universities went beyond money – they touched on quality, access and the relevance of higher education.