Students who have paid 60% of their tuition are being locked out of examinations they have prepared for. A school association has written formally. And on social media, the anger is raw and specific.
Makerere University is heading into its examination period with a tuition crisis that is spilling from WhatsApp groups into formal letters — and the Vice Chancellor is now being asked, directly and by name, to explain how a university can demand 100% tuition payment while delivering what students describe as a fraction of the services they paid for.
The flashpoint is the university’s rejection of a Guild President’s appeal to allow students who have paid at least 60% of their tuition fees to sit for a corresponding percentage of their examinations. The Vice Chancellor’s office responded on May 13, 2026, reference MAK/VC/566/26, maintaining the all-or-nothing policy. The response acknowledged surcharge waivers on late fees and an extension of the registration period — but held firm on the 60% examination access request.
That response has triggered a formal counter from the Makerere Education Students’ Association (MESA), a viral social media thread directed at Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe personally, and a campus conversation that is getting louder by the day.
Signed by Chairperson Mbabali Keneth and dated May 13, 2026, the MESA letter to Vice Chancellor Prof. Nawangwe is measured in tone but unsparing in its critique.
“We wish to register our deep disappointment and discontent with the rejection of the request to allow students to sit examinations based on at least 60% tuition payment,” it reads.
The letter acknowledges the university’s argument — that fees are paid for knowledge imparted, not for sitting examinations — but calls it “understandable in principle, but unrealistic and harsh in the current economic reality facing most Ugandan families.”
The MESA chairperson goes further, arguing that the rigid policy directly contradicts the spirit of the concessions already granted on surcharges and registration deadlines. “It sends a discouraging message to students who are trying their best to meet their obligations amid financial hardship,” the letter states.
The core request is a one-time exceptional concession — not a permanent policy change — allowing students with at least 60% tuition payment to sit for the corresponding percentage of their examinations before the examination period begins. MESA has also requested a meeting between School of Education leadership, the Guild, and University Management to explore humane and practical solutions.
The letter has been copied to Guild President Kadondi Gracious, the Deputy Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, the Academic Registrar, and the Dean of Students.
Away from the formal letters, students have taken their frustration to social media — and the questions being asked are pointed, specific, and addressed to Prof. Nawangwe by name.
“Are you aware that we sit in lecture rooms for two full months or more of the semester without seeing a single lecturer for some course units? Are you aware that we are examined on topics — for many semesters till date — we were never taught, and we are expected to pay full tuition for that ‘knowledge’?”
Another post challenges the university’s framing directly: “You say, ‘Fees are paid for the knowledge that is imparted, not for sitting examinations.’ Knowledge we 90% hustle for on our own? Like where is the knowledge for the course unit whose lecturer showed up twice in four months or didn’t at all? Where is the knowledge for the practical we never conducted?”
Students also list what they describe as functional fees paid for services never received — ghost red gowns, libraries with no books, internet that does not work, health services that cannot be accessed, laboratories they cannot step into.
The conclusion from students is not a demand for charity. It is a demand for proportionality.
“We are not asking for free education because we have been paying for it — but we are asking for justice. Allow us to pay 60% of tuition and sit 60% of our exams. It’s not a privilege but a minimum concession for some of the services you have failed to deliver. Saying No and hiding behind a letter and a policy you know is punishing the poor while protecting incompetence is betrayal to the whole country.”
The final message circulating among students is a warning — patient in tone but firm in meaning.
“Let the pressure exerted on students over tuition in this harsh, merciless, and vulnerable economy not exceed the patience students continue to show in enduring delayed services, neglected welfare, and in some cases, the complete absence of the very services they paid for.”
It closes with Makerere’s own motto: #WE BUILD FOR THE FUTURE.
Examinations at Makerere are imminent. The window for a negotiated solution — before students arrive at examination halls and find themselves locked out — is narrow. MESA has requested an urgent meeting. The Guild is copied on the correspondence. The Vice Chancellor’s office has responded once and held its position.
Whether management reconsiders before examinations begin, or whether this standoff reaches the examination room door, will define the next chapter of this story.
For the students who borrowed money, worked part-time, and scraped together 60% of their fees — the answer cannot come soon enough.
