Victoria University in Kampala has reduced its tuition fees in its efforts to help ease financial pressures on students and their families sparked by the coronavirus pandemic. .
The move comes after several complaints from students and parents affected by the damaging economic impact of COVID-19.
Schools and universities in Uganda all shut their doors to stem the spread of the disease and set up distance learning to continue the academic year.
The Kampala road based varsity management has reduced fees structure on all courses by 50% for existing, returning students and new students going forward.
Even those on different scholarships will enjoy the fee cuts including both local and international students.
While launching the fees reduction function at the university students’ auditorium, Rajiv Ruparelia one of the directors of this premier university noted that the decision was taken to help Ugandan and international students get affordable and quality education.
“The decision was taken to reduce the fees because of the global pandemic that has come in. We at Victoria University believe that quality education should be affordable to Ugandans and international students.”
Rajiv Adds” To be able to attract students in order to grow Victoria University community as we know that the current economic situation is not so good, we used this opportunity to give back to the community by adjusting on our fees structure.”
Dr Sudhir Ruparelia the Managing Director Victoria University also noted that as the economy took a back stage, Ruparelia Group decided to come out and support the communities by reducing tuition fees by a half.
“This pandemic is not only for today, it will be here for the next 2 to 3 years so the fees structure will remain stable for long time to come and we will review it in consultation with students’ body, university council and the market but I don’t see us raising fees for the next 2-3 years” Dr Sudhir explained.
He added that “We want to provide an affordable education because the economic situation of the country is not going to be good so we are going to support our communities”.
The university recently set a bar so high by rolling out free e-learning to help students complete their classes which were cut short by the COVID- 19 outbreak.
The University Vice Chancellor Dr Krishna Sharma said the university is ready to commence online teaching adding that all the issues raised in the guidelines by NCHE have already been in place at Victoria University and that the online classes will be conducted at a free cost while those who will not be able will be provided with printed contents for self-study.