By Pascal Kwesiga and Innocent Anguyo. PARENTS of students at the university must prepare to dig deeper in their pockets as tuition and functional fees are set to be hiked in a number of private and public universities in the country.
At Makerere, rising costs has forced the oldest public university to halt the feeding of private students who hitherto paid just sh2,000 per day for breakfast, lunch and supper.
This will raise the feeding cost for the students since they have to dig deeper in their pockets to buy food in the nearby eateries on a daily basis or alternatively cook their own food outside halls of residence.
The increase in fees is rooted in the rising costs of running universities. In public universities, the university councils, the top governing bodies, are only allowed to set new tuition fees provided they get approval from the Government. Read more...

Under the current system, a university president of this stature is appointed without much public input, by two departments - the Organization Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Part of China (CPC) and the Ministry of Education.
Officials from these departments announced Lin's appointment on Wednesday at a meeting of the university's leadership.
"I will work hard to provide professors and students with the opportunity to realize their potential and compete fairly," Lin said in his first speech as the university president.
Lin admitted to some weaknesses, saying his oratory skills needed work and that he is unsociable, but said he would "shoulder the negative pressure" and carry out his job. Professors and students at the university remained skeptical of his suitability, saying he is not familiar enough with the university. Read more...