STUDENTS’ mounting debts in unpaid tuition fees could force the Solomon Islands National University (SINU) to close its door by the end of the month unless the government intervenes, it was revealed on Thursday.
The students’ total debt for the two Campuses – Kukum and Panatina – stood at $123 million as of Monday this week. Of up to 6, 000 students who enrolled at SINU this year only 30 have completed their tuition fees, according to sources familiar with the matter.
Accordingly, the SINU Administration is understood to have told students to clear their arrears by Monday 31st of May or they will not be allowed to sit their First Semester’s final exams.
“The message from the Management is, clear your full debt or you don’t sit the exams. It now seems the SINU Management is putting its foot down on this issue. Unless there is intervention by the government, students who have outstanding fees would not be allowed to sit their exams,” the sources said.
“SINU initially asked students to pay up to 30 percent of their outstanding arrears at the beginning of the year. Now it is 100 percent or you are out,” the sources said.
They said many students believed the decision on the issue of tuition fees was “way too harsh, given the time limit to pay.”
“Where will students find the money to pay up, when some students ended up where they are because of unfulfilled pledges by Members of Parliament to pay the fees on the students’ behalf.
“This is a national issue and the government should step in because once students are refused exams, SINU will simply be empty. There will be no students because no student is without debt.
“All students have outstanding fees, which quite honestly are beyond their means,” the sources said.
According to the SINU list obtained by Solomon Star, the Faculty of Education and Humanity tops the list of unpaid tuition fees with $53, 557, 045 as of Monday last week. The Faculty of Business and Tourism Studies follows is in second place. It is owed $25, 257, 462 in unpaid tuition fees, according to the list.
The Faculty of Nursing, Medicine and Health Science is in third place. It is owed some $20, 827, 032 in unpaid tuition fees.
Other faculties are:
- Faculty of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry is owed $9, 680, 247;
- Faculty of Science and Technology is owed $9, 426, 992;
- Distance Flexible Learning (DFL) is owed $2, 903,087; and
- University Preparatory College (UPC) is owed $1, 229, 954
All up, SINU is owed $122, 881, 819 in unpaid tuition fees. It is understood some of the outstanding payments were owed by Members of Parliament who never honored their commitments to pay the fees for the students in their Constituencies.
Solomon Star sought comments from the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development but none was provided by the time this article went to print last night.
By Alfred Sasako
Newsroom, Honiara
