If you know any student attending the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), give them a hug. The university just increased their school fees by 100% for the second time in five years.
While students in some faculties will pay ₦83,000 basic tuition, students of other faculties like Medicine and Engineering are going to pay as high as ₦120,000. Hostel fees have have also been increased to ₦35,000 per year. This is compared to ₦41,500, a fee which one of the students attested to paying in the previous session.
Unsurprisingly, the affected students have taken to social media to complain about the hike.
The UNN Student Union is currently trying to keep students calm and promised to talk things through with the school authorities. But we know how ineffective student unions have been in the past couple of years, and we can only wish them the best of luck.
What’s even more alarming is that UNN isn’t the only public university with high school fees. More than 38 universities have increased their school fees due to poor funding by the federal and state governments.
Let’s take a look at some of them:
Kaduna State University (KASU)
In June 2021, the Kaduna State government felt it necessary to increase tuition from ₦26,000 to over ₦150,000.
The hike resulted in a tussle between authorities and students who protested for weeks against the hike. It got so bad that the school compelled parents to sign an undertaking that their children will stop the protests or risk expulsion.
Nnamdi Azikiwe University (UNIZIK)
In July 2021, students stormed the streets of Anambra to protest against the hike in fees from ₦20,000 to over ₦120,000. It was later reviewed by the authorities and reduced to ₦89,000 but this was still more than triple the original sum.
Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH)
In October 2019, the LAUTECH management decided to start the 2018/2019 session with violence when they declared a 200% increase. Students complained about the hike, but the fee never went down.
