Lilongwe University of Agriculture closes after students hold anti-fee hike demos

Natural Resources College campus a constituent college of the Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR)  has been closed indefinitely, following anit-fee hike demonstrations.

Students at Luanar hold demo
Students at Luanar hold demo
State of emergenecy at Luanar
State of emergenecy at Luanar

The students all morning  had running battles with police as they  were staging protests against the fee hike by 45 per cent.

The protests started in the night until Thursday morning when police fired teargas to quell the students.

A letter from the Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (Luanar) says the college has been closed indefinitely and all students must leave campus by 5 PM on Thursday.

LUANAR Vice Chancellor,  George Kanyama Phiri expressed surprise over the strike especially due the fact that the students did not follow the procedures.

Phiri  said this is why the Mmanagement has decided to close the campus describing the strike as illegal.

“I can confirm that we have temporarily closed NRC campus in order to protect lives and property,” said Professor Phiri.

Phiri said students went wild damaging property and beating up people.

“Some even went to as far as stealing chickens from the surrounding villages so this is not the good way of communicating to the management,” said Phiri.

But Luanar Students’ Union president, Peter Mbweza, denied that the protests were violent.

“The students were exercising their right to freely express themselves. The new fee hike will inconvenience us a lot,” he said.

Luanar  has increased tuition fees for all the undergraduate diploma and degree programmes offered by the university by an average of 45 percent.

According to the university, the new fees, hiked mostly from between K55 000 to K300 000 per year, are effective the 2016/2017 academic year.

achelor’s degree programmes generic students at Bunda Campus will now be required to pay K362 500 whereas bachelor’s degree mature entry students at the same Bunda Campus and those at City Campus will now be paying K771 000 per year.

The college has pegged the new tuition fees for “bachelor’s degree programmes at NRC Campus at K625 500 while bachelor’s degree programmes [ODL – Open Distance Learning] has been pegged at K300 000,” reads the statement.

It also says tuition fees for diploma programmes have also been hiked. Students at NRC Campus are now required to pay K367 749; those at City Campus will be paying K385 500 while those at Bunda Campus will be paying K362 500.

The fee hike protests in public universities started at the University of Malawi where authorities had hiked by K100000 until President Peter Mutharika ordered the slash of the fee hike by half bring peace to the University of Malawi campuses.

Follow and Subscribe Nyasa TV :

Sharing is caring!

Follow us in Twitter
7 Comments
newest
oldest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Logic
Logic
7 years ago

chaka chino kudya ana a ku college kulipo. sionse atakwanitse fees imeneyo. Achidyamakanda tisangalale.

be humane
be humane
7 years ago

so peaceful demonstration involves stealing peaceful chickens from the peaceful villagers, burning peaceful tyres, peacefully chasing with the police, peacefully breaking property and peacefully ordered to leave by 5pm. this is what peaceful demonstration means in the university students. Free or cheap tertiary education should translate to higher taxes from those working, from any consumer, from business people, from industrial enterprenuership. Govt gets money from collecting tax. Are we ready for that my fellow Malawians? Its us who will be paying for these students and not government

kanchenga
kanchenga
7 years ago
Reply to  be humane

Much better paying taxes to educate the youth than paying a stupid minister who knows blackouts are unacceptable but has no clue to end them and a foolish president hires private jets while the youth of his country can’t afford a university education because of exorbitant fees.

be humane
be humane
7 years ago
Reply to  kanchenga

Tertiary education kulikonse is expensive bambo. I think sukulu yanu munalekeza ku Secondary mukanakhala kuti munafika ku College simukanatero. inu nomwe atagula presidential jet you said igulitsidwe. Mukufuna president aziyenda pa Kabanza kapena pa Galimoto ndiye izudutsa panyanja? kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk

True Patriot
True Patriot
7 years ago

This is really turning into a comedy! So NRC students union was just waiting for the time their college would open in order for them to express their dissatisfaction at the fees hike? My understanding is that the students union office is functional even during vacations so why didn’t the union engage management during that time with the hope of reaching a compromise before the school opened? It is pathetic to see that our children get so excited when it comes to violent protests. Looking at the the pictures in this article, there is a lot of damage that has… Read more »

Mphwiyo
Mphwiyo
7 years ago

ana opusa azazindikira patsogolo

Getu
Getu
7 years ago

Poly next week. Raisind fees from K55,000 to K450,000 then reducing to K400,000 makes no sense. If you have failed to govern, move out

Read previous post:
Poisonous bacteria hits Malawi as people eat rotten food due to power outages

A poisonous bacteria has hit Malawi as people have resorted to eating rotten food because of persistent power outages. Human...

Close