Students react to new subsidised tertiary education model - nbc

There is a buzz surrounding the newly introduced subsidised tertiary education model.

NBC News gauged tertiary students' opinion in the capital on this new development.

Students have described the subsidised tertiary education policy as a major opportunity that increases access to higher education, particularly for those from low- and middle-income backgrounds.

NUST student Nadia Urimovandu said, "I feel like it's a good opportunity for people in our country who do not have funding; it will help them, like in terms of getting other funds like transport money and food money."

Amunime Samuel, a student from IUM, said, "Some people just end up not coming to school because of those fees. So it's very helpful."

However, some students say that while the initiative is a good one, it may be unfair to others.

"It's quite unfair to others because it only benefits some specific individuals. For instance, you talk about the undergrad degree; this benefits only the first time. So if you are redoing the course, you do not qualify for the funding even though it's still an undergraduate degree," said Lineekela-Omwene Gabriel, a student from IUM.

Meanwhile, the Registrar at the International University of Management, Dr. Aquilinus Nashilundo, said the registration process under the subsidised tertiary education policy started off slowly but is now gaining momentum, with over 1,000 students registering so far.

"As you see, following the government's announcement or pronouncement last Friday to clarify some of the issues we experienced in the first week or last week, our registration has now stabilised. As you can see behind me, you'll see now a lot of students that are sitting here waiting for registration. So since last week, where there was so much confusion and things that were not clear, I remember on the first day we only registered around 37 students under the Subsidial Education Education Funding Model. But since Monday, the numbers have now picked up. And by last night, we had about 1,700 new students already registered under the Subsidial Education Funding Model."