Govt, students owe NUST $6m

The National University of Science and Technology (NUST) in Bulawayo is owed more than $6 million by government and students under cadetship, and also by those in self-funding programmes but are in arrears, The Zimbabwe Mail reported.

Since last week, NUST lecturers teaching undergraduate students on parallel programmes and those doing their masters' have been on industrial action demanding outstanding salaries and accusing the institution's management of misappropriating funds.

However, in an interview with The Zimbabwe Mail, NUST Director of Information and Publicity Felix Moyo said problems bedeviling the institution were caused by government and the students.

"Government, through its cadetship programme, owes us more than $3m, whilst parallel and masters' students owe $3  111 000 from the previous and current semester," he said.

In the cadetship programme, government, through the ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education pays two thirds of students' tuition per semester, with students paying off the balance.

But Moyo said government had paid nothing thus far to honour its cadetship deal with the institution.

Cadetship students are in the conventional system.

"At its inception (cadetship programme) we used to receive money as soon as budge was announced and it will be up to us to plan how we use the money but later its disbursement became erratic, then this year we received totally nothing," he said.

The institution reportedly owes the striking lectures $1 180 000 in salaries and Moyo said students should pay up and avoid inconveniences.

"If the students in the parallel programmes own up and pay, the lecturers will be paid within an hour and everything will be back to normal.

"The students are losing time and we will not shift our exams.

"The students who are affected are those in the self-funding category, that is, those in parallel and in the masters' programmes.

"Everything is normal with the conventional students, they are attending their classes as usual," he said.

"NUST is not paying the parallel and masters' lecturers because their salary is not in the government salary structure and the lectures get their money from students in their classes," he said.

Moyo appealed to both the parallel students and the lecturers to resolve the issue amicably.

"We appeal to the students to come forward and pay fees so that we can pay the lecturers, we also appeal to the lecturers to realise that staying away on its own provides further complication to the matrix," he said.