Master of Business Administration (MBA) students at Midlands State University have moved to take legal action against the institution for demanding they pay their tuition fees exclusively in US dollars.
The total fee per semester for the MBA degree program is $1888.
MSU MBA students are expected to have registered by March 8, and to do so they must pay at least half of their semester fees.
The students have engaged legal practitioners at Wintertons to deal with the matter.
In a letter dated March 1, 2024, addressed to MSU Vice-Chancellor Professor Victor Mozvidziwa, Winterton’s legal practitioners gave the institution 48 hours’ notice to give students the option of settling the fees in local currency, or it would approach the High Court.
“Requiring payment in US dollars is clearly against the law and should not be allowed to continue.
“We have been instructed to request, as we hereby do, that within 48 hours, we must offer our customers the option of settling their charges in local currency,” the letter read in part.
“In this regard, our clients hereby make an offer to pay the required fees in local currency. This is in line with the position of Get the Law.
“If you do not respond to our letter within 48 hours, we will approach the High Court on an urgent basis to obtain 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 to the US dollar.
However, the students assert that allowing academic and tuition fees to be linked to US dollars does not “give universities the right to demand payments in US dollars.”
By press time, students said the university had not given them the option of settling fees in local currency.
Earlier in January, High Court Judge Gladys Muri ordered Harare Polytechnic to stop requiring tuition and other fees to be paid exclusively in US dollars, and to accept payments from students in the local currency, at the prevailing interbank exchange rate.
This was after Harare Polytechnic students submitted an application on January 25, in response to a circular issued by the college on January 12 demanding that fees be paid exclusively in US dollars. Sunday mail
