The principal of Makerere University Business School (MUBS), Prof Wasswa Balunywa, has hit back at Makerere University in a wrangle between the two institutions over remitting of functional fees.
Last week, Makerere University threatened not to graduate more than 4,000 MUBS students for allegedly failing to remit more than Shs2.64 billion in functional fees.
However, in an interview with this newspaper on Thursday, Prof Balunywa likened Makerere University’s behaviour to that of ‘a big brother’ syndrome of trying to bully the young ones.
“Why do Makerere people do this every time there is a graduation? Why punish innocent students when they (Makerere) are the cause of these problems,” he said.
Prof Balunywa said some time back, the then deputy vice chancellor, Prof Lillian Tibatemwa Ekirikubinza, chaired a committee meeting, in which they agreed on the responsibilities of each of the two institutions of higher learning, including the functional fees.
“Every semester we pay functional fees and we keep paying in instalments. The money Makerere is demanding was not agreed upon.
Prof Balunywa accused Makerere of unfairly introducing affiliation fees and yet MUBS is affiliated to Makerere by law. He promised to meet with the vice chancellor, Prof Barnabus Nawangwe, and iron out the differences in time before the graduation starts.
