DAR ES SALAAM, TANZANIA (Xinhua) — The authorities of the University of Dar es Salaam, the largest in Tanzania, have sent all undergraduate students from the main campus packing for home.
The move came after a three-day boycott against classes on the campus to protest the authorities’ loan funds allocations or cost-sharing policy.
The suspension has affected all government-sponsored undergraduate students and the number was given at over 10,000.
The university authorities have explained that the boycott had contravened the university’s regulation which stipulates that campuses be closed down after a third day of continuous student protests.
The students have boycotted classes in demand for the government to give them 100-percent loans instead of basing the amount of loans they would get on the financial status of their families or guardians.
University Deputy Vice-Chancellor Yunus Mgaya said that the suspension would not affect foreign or short-term or part-time students enrolled in the undergraduate programs.
A senior official from the Tanzanian ministry of education had given an instruction for the students to resume studies by Wednesday morning.
Tanzania’s Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda has earlier made it clear during a parliamentary session in Dodoma that the cost-sharing policy would be there to stay.
In April last year, a similar closure occurred at the University of Dar es Salaam after students had boycotted classes to demand higher field attachment allowances.
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