Kampala — President Museveni has directed public institutions of higher learning to charge Ugandan and foreign students the same amount of tuition fees. This is right because all students attend the same lectures and use the same facilities.

The policy was discriminatory; it created the impression that foreigners were not welcome, whereas not.

However, there is another form of discrimination based not on nationality but social class. It is evidenced by the disparity in tuition fees structures between courses. For example, fees for Law is sh900,000 and half that amount for Arts, Social Sciences or Education. Yet the courses are all theory-based and no extra facilities are offered to those paying higher fees. This disparity also exists between some courses in the same faculty. What is the justification? Are lecturers in some courses paid more than their counterparts?

It is understandable if students doing practical or science-based courses pay more because they need extra facilities. But what is the rationale for different tuition fees for courses in the same category? It appears universities look at demand and hike fees for popular courses to limit numbers.

Unfortunately, they lock out only those from poor family backgrounds. Indeed many bright students miss their preferred courses and do others because their guardians do not have the money. They are punished not because they do not have the brains to do their first choice courses but because they were born in poor families.

What is happening is what Prof. Mamdani calls commercialisation of education. Education is made a commodity and only those with the money get what they want.

There should be a uniform fees structure for all courses in the same category, say Arts or Sciences. Fears that most applicants will go for particular courses and not others can be addressed by basing admission on other criteria, such as grades at A' level, and not financial status.

Currently some courses are for the rich and the rest for the poor. This should end.