Some students at the Women’s University in Africa (WUA) are up in arms with authorities at the institution who ordered that those sitting for special examinations will have to travel to Harare.
Some of the affected students who are based in Bulawayo told CITE that they were informed that they will sit for their special examinations in Harare despite having written their other examinations from their satellite campus in the city.
“The Women’s University in Africa has a campus in Mutare, Bulawayo and other centres. The Covid–19 lockdown affected us as some of us were not able to sit for our exams and in some instances the timetable clashed, you would find that there were two papers scheduled at the same time,” said one of the students.
The students said it was not practical for them to travel to Harare for one paper.
“This is unfair, when we enrolled at the university, we thought we will be learning in those centers which are closer to us, it’s unfair for the students as the majority are not working and the economy is tough”.
Contacted for a comment, Women’s University in Africa Registrar, Bertha Mugwise said the institution has long been conducting special exams in Harare.
“I think this is a new group of students, otherwise thus the way we have always been doing business, all our students in separate campuses when it comes to special exams, they come here to write exams for logistical reasons, what it means is we have to send people from exams with examination papers to various centers, for example in Bulawayo we had five students who are who are seating for this special examination paper,” said Mugwise.
“With time as the university continues to grow and as students’ enrolment in different compasses also continues to grow and expand maybe we will also have students writing exams from different campuses.”
She said the Institution also faced some logistical challenges due to the Covid-19 outbreak.
“It unfortunate that we have also been affected by Covid-19 and a lot of things, like now we have a graduation which is around the corner and we want the students to write so that their papers are marked as soon as possible especially for those who are graduating,” she said.
