Chinhoyi University students outage over fees pegged to black-market rate
Students at Chinhoyi University of Technology (CUT) have raised concerns over the university’s registration, accusing authorities of converting charges using black-market exchange rates instead of the official rate.
CUT has set registration fees at US$300, charged as ZIG 9,600. Registration fees is US$300 while full fees is US$700 depending with the programme.
However, at the official interbank rate of about ZIG 26 to the US dollar, the same amount should be around ZIG 7,800 — nearly ZIG 1,800 less than what students are being asked to pay.
Students say the practice is unfair, particularly for parents who earn or save in ZiG.
“Vabereki vedu vanotambira ZiG. Kushandisa black-market rate kuri kutirwadza,” one student said, adding that students feel their concerns are not being heard.
They are calling on CUT to align its fee conversions with the official Reserve Bank rate.
"Pblic institutions should not rely on parallel-market pricing that increases financial pressure on families," said a student.
Efforts to obtain comment from Chinhoyi University of Technology were unsuccessful by the time of publication.
