Makerere University government-sponsored students are calling on the management to release their living-out allowances. The students, through the newly appointed Guild Minister Sharifa Kiranda, have written a letter to the University Secretary asking for immediate action to be taken.
“The semester is coming to a close, and students are going in for the end-of-semester exams which have welfare consequences for the government-sponsored students, whose allowances have been worryingly delayed,” reads part of the letter.
“I humbly appeal to you to devise an immediate course of action concerning the matter as this changes the trajectory of avoidable inconveniences that would rise,” the letter adds. The delay in releasing the allowances has caused inconvenience to the students, who depend on them for subsistence.
The government-sponsored students who reside outside the university receive at least 760,000 Shillings every semester as a living-out allowance to cover the cost of their accommodation and meals. However, some students have only received 33 percent of their mandatory allowances received every semester.
Hostels around Makerere Kikoni, Kikumi, and Wandegeya charge between Shillings 500,000 and 2 million Shillings per semester, while rental houses charge between Shillings 150,000 and 500,000 per month.
Prof Henry Arinaitwe, the University Deputy Vice Chancellor in Charge of Finance and Administration, says that the University budget was constrained because the University decided to run three semesters in a single academic year to make up for time lost during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The University has already engaged the Ministry of Finance, and they are awaiting its response. The situation is similar at Kyambogo University, where students are also protesting over delayed allowances for government students and surcharges on late tuition payments.
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