Murwira: University fees have not increased since 2014

By Karen Nyeraurombo.

Higher and Tertiary Education Minister Amon Murwira has told Parliament that University fees in the country have not increased since 2014.

Appearing before the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Higher and Tertiary Education, Minister Murwira said if anything, University fees have gone down.

“From 2014 I do not see fees increasing, it is important to note that tuition fees in tertiary state Universities were about US$450 from 2015-2018, this is a very important figure.

“The current tuition fees of ZW$15 000 to ZW$20 000 is still lower than US$450 charged in 2015. In terms of equivalent values, the fees have not gone up, yet it is correct to say the fees has not increased from what they were in 2014.

“Instead, if talking of low or high we talk about affordability, reasonability and sustainability. So US$50 or US$100 might be too much but if it comes to matters of fact we cannot say that it increased from 2014 because it didn’t,’’ he said.

Minister Murwira added that when the country changed from the multi-currency system, the government did not increase fees.

“In 2019 the ministry did not review fees upwards, when Zimbabwe changed to multi-currency the nominal value of fees did not change at all, US$450 became ZW$450 and some citizens began to put things on twitter saying there is hunger at universities but we said to our students and staff, let’s soldier on because we can’t increase fees at this moment, let’s just eat what we have and if it means that we eat beans then we do so,’’ he said.

The Minister also highlighted that government has created facilities to help vulnerable students pay their fees through student loans.

He said the student loan current stands at about ZW$110 million and that the government is also offering students part-time employment to work for their fees.

Murwira: University fees have not increased since 2014