A Malawian woman has dragged the University of Zambia (UNZA) to court for refusing to award her a master’s degree despite the woman qualifying for the award.
Susan Mkangama has sued the University Council of Zambia demanding that it confers on her a Master of Business Administration (MBA) in Strategic Management.
Quoting a statement of claim which Mkangama has filed at the Lusaka High Court, Zambian publication Mwebantu reported that around October 2019, Mkangama applied to UNZA for the purpose of being enrolled under the 100 percent online MDA in Entrepreneurship programme.
The University’s administration on October 22, 2019 advised Mkangama to pay an application fee and submit scanned copies of academic documents.
After she tendered the required documents, she was accepted through a letter dated November 1, 2019.
On March 16, 2020, the school informed Mkangama that the Entrepreneurship programme had not reached the minimum number of students required to be opened for March 2020 term.
“Ms Mkangama was given the option of choosing from four alternative MBA programmes; MBA General, MBA in Finance, MBA in Management Strategy, MBA in Project Management.
“Alternately, she was asked to wait until May 2020 in the event the MBA Entrepreneurship reached the minimum students needed for the term,” Mwebantu reported.
The Malawian woman opted to pursue the MBA in Management Strategy and paid for it over the years.
However, in April last year, towards the end of her programme, UNZA informed her that some of the documents she sent to be admitted for the programme were missing and she needed to meet the requirements before being registered for her master’s thesis.
The university told Mkangama to submit an O’Level Certificate with five passed subjects. This was different from the communication given to her on October 22, 2019.
The University later refused to confer the necessary attained qualifications on her despite successfully concluding her studies.
The university’s decision has forced Mkangama to drag UNZA to the Lusaka High Court where she is demanding that she should be given her paper and that the court should order UNZA to pay her damages for loss of use of funds, inconvenience and mental anguish, among other reliefs.
Follow us on Twitter:
