UNZA Students Count the Cost After Exams Postponed on Day of Return

Student Union Vice President Apologises, Demands Accountability from Management

Thousands of University of Zambia students returned to campus to sit their mid-year examinations only to find the exercise had been postponed — many of them on the very day they had travelled from across the country to be there.

“We opened and closed on the same day,” became the phrase circulating among students as the news filtered through the institution, capturing in a few words what no official notice had bothered to acknowledge: that for most of these students, the journey to Lusaka had already been made, and the money to make it had already been spent.

Student Union Vice President Jemimah Mwaba has since broken her silence, issuing a public statement in which she apologised to affected students, acknowledged the Union’s own frustration with the outcome and laid out formal demands directed at university management.

Mwaba said the Student Union had spent several weeks engaging management over rehabilitation works on campus, consistently pressing the point that students should only be recalled when conditions were genuinely ready to receive them. Management nonetheless directed students to report on June 17. Many came back in good faith. What awaited them fell far short of what had been implied.

“The events that unfolded left many students stranded, inconvenienced, frustrated and forced to return home,” Mwaba said. She added that she had personally seen the toll the situation had taken  the disappointment, the financial exhaustion, the uncertainty. “I stand with you,” she told students.

The financial dimension of the crisis is what has cut deepest for many families. Parents had already emptied their pockets before the postponement notice appeared. Some had borrowed. Others sold farm produce, raided grocery funds or held back money meant for other household needs, all on the assumption that their child’s return to campus was settled. Now those same households must somehow fund a second journey when a new date is eventually confirmed.

An unnamed student put the mood plainly: “This isn’t just about postponing exams. It’s about the burden placed on families who are already struggling with the high cost of living. We are the ones carrying the consequences.”

Another described what the week had looked like from a student’s perspective: “Our parents did their part. We packed our bags. We prepared for our exams. Then, in a single notice, everything came to a standstill.”

For students travelling from rural provinces, a return ticket to Lusaka is not something you book on a whim. It is budgeted for, saved toward and, in some households, prayed over. The Great East Road campus sits at the end of a journey that costs families not just money but planning across weeks. Being asked to make that journey twice  because management misjudged its own readiness is the detail that has stuck most painfully.

Mwaba did not soften her assessment of where the fault lies. “Accountability is essential,” she said. “Decisions that affect thousands of students must be made with careful planning, clear communication and realistic assessments of preparedness. Students should not bear the cost of administrative shortcomings.”

The Student Union is now demanding that management issue a clear and accountable public communication on the situation, that the academic calendar be reviewed to reflect actual conditions on the ground, and that ongoing online classes be suspended until all students can participate on equal footing. Running virtual lessons while large numbers of students remain stranded away from campus, the Union argues, is neither equitable nor conducive to learning.

Mwaba was candid about the Union’s own position in all of this. “While we have consistently represented and pushed the interests of students in our engagements with management, we recognise that the outcome has fallen far short of what our student body deserves,” she said, extending the Union’s apologies for the distress caused.

UNZA has not publicly indicated when a revised academic calendar will be released. The Student Union says it will continue pressing management for a resolution while students wait for both a confirmed return date and a formal response to the financial consequences the postponement has left behind.