NAMIBIAN student unions are calling on institutions of higher learning and the government to reduce or set aside the “excessive” registration fees to allow all students the chance to register this year.
The unions are arguing that if the registration fees remain too high, many students will be forced to drop out of university. One of the unions has threatened to initiate a campus shutdown if their demands are not met.
The Students Union of Namibia (SUN) president, Simon Amunime, said his union champions free quality tertiary and vocational education, and if the requests are not heard by today, SUN will embark on a national campus shutdown, as part of its campaign for free registration nationwide.
“Maybe our request is falling on deaf ears. We hereby announce that registration fees are bound to fall in 2020, because tertiary education should be accessible to all students. Failure to adhere to free registration for this year by Tuesday 21 January (today), the SUN and the students’ representative councils will be embarking on a national campus shutdown, as part of the free registration operation,” he said.
Amunime added that members of the SUN are lobbying for first-year students to register for free, by providing acknowledgement letters as proof of funding from the Namibia Students Financial Assistance Fund (NSFAF); while pressing for the senior students funded by NSFAF should register for free across the board.
However, he said the SUN has suggested that private-funded students to pay a maximum of N$3 000 at all institutions, as opposed to the N$5 600 charged by the University of Namibia (Unam), and N$4 200 charged by the Namibia University of Science and Technology (Nust).
Meanwhile, the union set the maximum registration fee for postgraduate students at N$4 000 across the board, as opposed to the N$8 000 charged by Nust, and N$7 000 by Unam for masters and PhD students.
“In terms of students in debt, the government must assist the Namibian child to write off their student debt, the same way they have bailed out the failing parastatals and increased subsidies to the public institutions as a remedy for operational and administrative costs,” he said.
The SUN also opposed the government’s intention to turn loans into grants, saying it is contrary to the call for free tertiary education.
Speaking to , the Namibia National Students Organisation (Nanso) secretary general, Efraim Paulus, said students should not be denied access to education because they are unable to pay the “exorbitant” registration fees.
He noted that Nanso is engaging the higher education ministry, NSFAF and the management teams of the various universities (namely Unam and Nust) and the student representative councils of the universities to come up with a solution.
“We do not want students to be eliminated from education facilities because they cannot afford the registration fees. This is why we are engaging the universities for a solution,” he said.
In a letter addressed to the higher education ministry on 17 January 2020, Nanso president Simon Taapopi said the fee structures for prospective first-year, continuing and postgraduate students in their current form are exorbitant and run a risk of excluding students from accessing education.
“This means that a cohort of first-year students and continuing students may be forced to leave university this year due to their inability to pay the high registration fees to enrol at the different institutions of higher learning. This is worrying, not only to Nanso, but to the families who rely on their children to break the cycle of poverty in their homes,” he said.
