MIDLANDS STATE UNIVERSITY’S Masters in Business Administration (MBA) students have moved to take legal action against the institution for demanding payment of their tuition fees exclusively in United States dollars.
The total fees per semester for the MBA degree programme is
US$1 888.
MSU’s MBA students are expected to have registered by March
8, and to do this they are required to have paid at least half of a semester’s
fees.
The students have engaged Wintertons Legal Practitioners to
handle the matter.
In a letter dated March 1, 2024, directed to MSU’s Vice
Chancellor Professor Victor Muzvidziwa, Wintertons Legal Practitioners have
given the institution a 48-hour notice to give the students an option to settle
the fees in the local currency, or it will approach the High Court.
“Demanding payment in United States dollars is clearly in
contravention of the law and should not be allowed to stand.
“We have been instructed to demand, as we hereby do, that
within 48 hours, you should extend to our clients the option to settle their
fees in local currency,” reads part of the letter.
“In this regard, our clients hereby tender payment of the
requisite fees in local currency. This is in keeping with the obtaining
position of the law.
“Should you not respond to our letter within 48 hours, we
shall be approaching the High Court on an urgent basis for appropriate relief.”
Last August, the Government — through the Ministry of
Higher and Tertiary Education — gave universities and colleges the green light
to peg tuition fees in US dollars.
However, the students maintain that being allowed to peg
academic and tuition fees in US dollars does not “give universities the right
to demand US dollar payments”.
By the time of publication, the students said the
university had not granted them the option to settle the fees in the local
currency.
Earlier in January, High Court judge Justice Gladys Mhuri
ordered the Harare Polytechnic to stop demanding payment of tuition and other
levies exclusively in US dollars, and to accept payments from students in the
local currency, at the prevailing interbank rate.
This was after Harare Polytechnic students had filed an
application on January 25, in response to a January 12 circular by the college
demanding payment of fees exclusively in US dollars. Sunday Mail
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