Copperbelt University (CBU) Vice-Chancellor Professor Naison Ngoma says students will now be required to pay K150 instead of the K1,500 surcharge for damaging property at the institution.

And Minister of Higher Education Dr Brian Mushimba says he guided management on how they should come up with the surcharge.

Last week, CBU management demanded that students pay a K1,500 surcharge to compensate damaging university property, a situation that led to its indefinite closure earlier this year.

But in a statement, Prof Ngoma U-turned and stated that the surcharge would now be K150 per student following an outcry by various stakeholders.

“Most of the students are going to be charged K150, which must be paid before they open. But there will be a category of students who will receive specific instructions on their portals. These are the students who were retrieved from the suspensions and the students who were expelled. They will be specifically contacted. It was a long discussion and there was no disagreement that majority of the students were directly involved in the fracas,” stated Prof Ngoma.

And Dr Mushimba said he guided CBU on how they ought to come up with the surcharge.

“It’s true that the students will be required to pay a K150. This was done by the school, but I just guided them on how they should come up with the surcharge and they did the rest,” said Dr Mushimba.