National Assembly Orders Withdrawal of All University Admission Letters

The National Assembly Education Committee on Tuesday directed the Ministry of Education to order the withdrawal of all university admission letters.

While appearing before the committee, the Ministry was urged to direct all universities to recall the already-issued admission letter after alleged anomalies in the fees students are required to pay.

In the admission letters, the Ministry of Education allegedly imposed an entire amount of school fees on students regardless of the categories under the new funding model.

The recall of the letters would therefore be done to amend the amounts displayed on the calling letters where students would be allocated fee amounts based on the set classifications.

The decision was reached amidst uproar by different stakeholders including parents and even students on the amounts displayed on the calling letters.

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While responding to the allegation, the Education Ministry officials admitted to the error, forcing the legislators to issue the orders.

The Ministry in its defence, outlined several shortcomings that marred the whole process of categorising students.

“We have the whole submission of appeals and we acknowledge there are some gaps in this process,” a Ministry official told the committee.

“Some of them are caused by not getting appropriate information and that is why in the appeals process we try to engage the students to provide enough information to help us assess their status.”

The new funding model was aimed at helping students facing financial hardships by not paying any fees to colleges and universities including their upkeep.

Under the new funding model introduced by the government in May 2023, students would be categorised as vulnerable, extremely needy, needy, and less needy.

The vulnerable and extremely needy students would receive 100 percent funding while the needy and less needy would get 93 percent.