There is disquiet at the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital (OAUTH) College of Nursing after the management increased its tuition fees from N250,000 to N840,500, amounting to over 200% increment.
SaharaReporters gathered that the breakdown for the tuition fees is Remita Fees: N732,500, PTF: N50,000 and Payment to school: N58,000.
According to students and parents, the increment is insensitive to them who had even been struggling to pay the previous N250,000 fees.
“These students cannot afford these payments. They are struggling with the former payment and this new payment will lead to massive dropouts,” one of the parents who spoke to SaharaReporters said.
A female student said, “I know a good number of students that were barely feeding when they were in school because their parents took loans for their school fees and they had nothing to fall back on. This increment will not only cause pain and confusion but it will send a lot of students packing. We need help please.”
The increment by OAUTH College of Nursing management, like many other federal universities, is usually premised on excuses such as the need to boost their revenue generation amid poor funding by the government.
Some of the federal universities where tuition fees have also been increased are University of Lagos (UNILAG) University of Maiduguri (UNIMAD), University of Uyo, (UNIYO), University of Calabar (UNICA), Federal University Dutse, Federal University, Lafia (FULafia) Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, University of Ilorin(UNIILORIN), Ahmadu Bello University(ABU), Zaria and among others.
In University of Lagos, students of the institution previously paid N19, 000 but the management has fixed new fees at N190, 250 for students studying medicine while for courses that require laboratory and studio, students are to pay N140, 250.
The decision by the management of UNILAG raised apprehension among students and parents.
In Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife, Osun State, students in the Faculties of Arts, Law and Humanities, the ‘freshers’ would pay N151,200 while returning students of the same faculties would pay N89,200.”
Returning students in the faculties were paying N20,100 before the increase while Faculties of Technology and Science paid N28,100. Also, the Faculty of Pharmacy students paid N31,100 per session.
Peoplesmind
