News / Local
Nust lecturers go on strike
07 Mar 2014 at 07:32hrs | Views
LECTURERS at the National University of Science and Technology (Nust) have abandoned parallel and masters' programmes classes accusing the university management of failing to pay them for the evening lessons and diverting the money to cover other expenses.
In protest, academics submitted a memo to management last week after they resolved to stop teaching parallel and masters' students in protest over non-payment.
"Academics at Nust refused to donate their part-time wages to the institution. They demand to be paid their dues," Nust Educators Association spokesperson Blessing Jona said yesterday.
"The institution should simply take its percentage from the revenue generated from part-time lessons and for them to take all the funds is unfair. The institution cannot survive at the expense of the people who offer the service that generates the money."
Nust's director of information and public relations Felix Moyo confirmed the strike that began on Monday.
"The allegation that the university's administration is mismanaging funds is not true because there is no money to pay the lecturers since students owe the university $3,111,000 for the current and the previous semester, which is supposed to be used to pay off their lecturers," Moyo said.
"Lecturers who teach self-funded programmes receive their allowances from the students they teach so if their students owe, there is no money to pay them off."
Moyo said the university will engage lecturers and come to an understanding considering that fully paid students were missing lectures.
"Students usually clear off their fees before they sit for their examinations, meaning that we will be able to pay them. These programmes are self-funded, meaning that students should pay their fees in full to receive services," he said.
He urged students to honour their payment plans and clear all their outstanding balances.
Jona said the parallel and masters' programmes were self-funded and that by right the university was supposed to take 30 percent from the funds generated from the service with the rest meant for payment of lecturers and other services for the tutorials.
Lecturers alleged Nust was facing serious financial problems and has resorted to diverting monies generated in the parallel programme to cover up administrative expenses.
The lecturers said the problem has persisted since September last year and that the university has not responded to their memo to date.
Meanwhile, scores of affected students are missing lessons and some of them reportedly demonstrated at the university over the issue.
In protest, academics submitted a memo to management last week after they resolved to stop teaching parallel and masters' students in protest over non-payment.
"Academics at Nust refused to donate their part-time wages to the institution. They demand to be paid their dues," Nust Educators Association spokesperson Blessing Jona said yesterday.
"The institution should simply take its percentage from the revenue generated from part-time lessons and for them to take all the funds is unfair. The institution cannot survive at the expense of the people who offer the service that generates the money."
Nust's director of information and public relations Felix Moyo confirmed the strike that began on Monday.
"The allegation that the university's administration is mismanaging funds is not true because there is no money to pay the lecturers since students owe the university $3,111,000 for the current and the previous semester, which is supposed to be used to pay off their lecturers," Moyo said.
"Lecturers who teach self-funded programmes receive their allowances from the students they teach so if their students owe, there is no money to pay them off."
"Students usually clear off their fees before they sit for their examinations, meaning that we will be able to pay them. These programmes are self-funded, meaning that students should pay their fees in full to receive services," he said.
He urged students to honour their payment plans and clear all their outstanding balances.
Jona said the parallel and masters' programmes were self-funded and that by right the university was supposed to take 30 percent from the funds generated from the service with the rest meant for payment of lecturers and other services for the tutorials.
Lecturers alleged Nust was facing serious financial problems and has resorted to diverting monies generated in the parallel programme to cover up administrative expenses.
The lecturers said the problem has persisted since September last year and that the university has not responded to their memo to date.
Meanwhile, scores of affected students are missing lessons and some of them reportedly demonstrated at the university over the issue.
Source - chronicle
