Shortage of accommodation at CUB is becoming unbearable – COBUSU

Shortage of accommodation at CUB is becoming unbearable – COBUSU
By Misheck Wangwe in Kitwe
Sat 26 June 2010, 03:00 CAT [538 Reads, 0 Comment(s)]
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COPPERBELT University Students’ Union (COBUSU) president Mark Muchindu has disclosed that the school has 2,000 bed spaces against the population of 7,000 students currently enrolled at the campus.

In an interview at Sheboune Farms on Thursday after the launch of the British American Tobacco scholarship Scheme for seven students, Muchindu said the critical shortage of accommodation at the institution was becoming unbearable for the students.

He said corporate entities should help the institution in the provision of accommodation of students who had been greatly affected academically.

Muchindu said despite the construction of a new hostel block by the government, it had failed to cushion the critical shortage of accommodation as it only provided 96 bed spaces.

He said other students who had an opportunity to be offered bed space were forced to help their colleagues without accommodation, a situation that led to unhealthy living conditions.

“The accommodation situation at CBU has now turned into a crisis. We are forced to be six in a room that was designed to accommodate two students only. Our living condition there is unhealthy; it’s just that we can’t let go of education due to accommodation crisis. We are appealing to government and other cooperating partners to come to the aid of the schools and really help us,” Muchindu said.

He said the desire of the union was to see the university develop in terms of infrastructure so that the students could enjoy conducive accommodation and learning environment.

Muchindu commended the British American Tobacco (BAT) for offering scholarship schemes for seven students.

He said the direction that BAT had taken to sponsor the underprivileged students and others for academic excellence was a good gesture for young people who were striving to secure their future.

“Looking at the poverty levels in our country a lot of students are struggling to pay their school fees. The corporate social investment of BAT is a blessing and will never go in vein as it would go a long way in supporting the underprivileged students academically,” Muchindu said.

And during the launch of scholarship scheme, BAT managing director Johan Grobbelaar said the undergraduate scholarship scheme was initiated in 2009 to benefit deserving candidates from underprivileged backgrounds by giving them access to tertiary education.

Grobbelaar said the hope of the company was to extend the programme to various state tertiary institutions to enable more underprivileged students to get the scholarship.

He said BAT Zambia enjoyed the relationship it had established with the Copperbelt University.
“One of our business principles is mutual benefit. We are a commercial enterprise with a primary role of building long-term shareholder value by meeting consumers’ preference for high quality tobacco products. In doing so we believe that we need to adopt a responsible, accountable approach towards win-win outcomes that maintain stakeholder interests,” Globbelaar said.

Dean of School of Business Dr Shadreck Chama urged the private sector to emulate the BAT scheme.

He said many young people were on the streets due to lack of sponsorship to study at universities.
Chama also challenged the beneficiaries of the scholarships to work hard and achieve academic excellence so that BAT could be motivated to sponsor other students.