The Vice Chancellor of the University of Lagos (UNILAG), Prof. Folasade Tolulope Ogunsola has cited reasons behind the rise in the institution’s tuition fees, chiefly caused by the challenging economic conditions in the country which significantly impacted the operational costs of the university.
Earlier, the increase in fees had prompted students to stage a protest resulting in the arrest of several students by security forces.
Prof. Ogunsola also attributed the fee hike to the diminishing financial support from the government, stating that the university could no longer sustain its previous financial arrangements.
She went on to elaborate that the university allocates substantial resources to various essential areas such as hostel maintenance, electricity and internet services, annual result verification and certification, program accreditation, as well as the logistical requirements for hosting individuals who come for accreditation purposes.
New fee structure
However, as reported by Nairametrics, the university administration revised the fee structure, setting it at N190,250 for students pursuing Medicine.
Courses that necessitate laboratory and studio resources, had its tuition set at N140,250. Furthermore, the VC clarified that programs that do not require laboratory and studio facilities have been set at a fee of N100,750.
What she said
The Vice-Chancellor (VC) explained that previously students at the institution were charged a tuition fee of N19,000, moreover, its tuition fees were maintained at the same level for 15 consecutive years without any increases.
Before the increase the university took the step to adjust the fees and held a parents’ forum to inform stakeholders and unions about the decision in January this year.
She further elaborated on the expenditure incurred by the university which necessitated the new fee structure, saying:
- “Apart from the electricity bill which is about N1.7 billion per annum, we verify results by examination bodies which comes to about N3,500 to N5,000 per student.
- “We conduct examinations which cost about N80 million per year and in addition, each of the faculty incurs another N3 million to N5 million, so we have about N40 million annually.
- “We also do accreditation and N62 million is paid for accreditation of our programmes and sometimes when new programmes commence.
- “Other cost includes the logistics of hosting people who come for accreditation, which comes to about N100 to N200 million every year, work-study programme and indigent students scheme, among others.”
- “It was decided at the meeting that the fee increase should be announced in July so that the council can ratify it,” she added.
Prof. Ogunsola further expressed concern that the council was dissolved before then, and the petrol subsidy was removed which worsened the situation. She said,
- “The issue of price increase started in January and we discussed it with the university council the idea was to look at all the fees that we have been charging and look at how we could increase it so that we could come to the prevailing rate because it was very clear that we were always falling back on our obligations.
- “We had a committee set up to look at all the bills we paid and we had mountains of debts as well, but when we looked at all the bills, it was very clear that we had to increase to meet our obligations.”
However, Prof. Ogunsola stated that the university would continue to work on improving its ability to mitigate the impact of the hike in fees on students, staff and parents, adding that no student would drop out as a result of it.
I’m a product of UNILAG, currently on my Masters. It’s so bad that there are no recent infrstructural developments within the school, most lecture rooms are just too poor, the hostels, if you hear what lecturers, even the senior ones receive as salary, you’ll feel sorry for them…….my prayer is that God should provide for all the parents and students to be able to meet up with the new fees, so that we can have a conducive learning environment since government has failed in their responsibilities…
With all the analysis of the VC
Though, is well understandable if the increase margin could be used to maintain all the expenses as stated, so that we can have new development in unilag.
I pray that Allah will continue to enrich parents purse, because my daughter is about to join the school in this new increase.
God bless Nigerian
The ungodly decision agreed by some parents, school management and the vice chancellor is a bad decision. At what percentage of increment from #19,000 to #190,250. If I may ask is the economy as bad as the rate of increment..UNILAG is not the only Federal University in Nigeria, other Federal University increased their fees at avoidable rate. Like FUTA (Akure), UN Ilorin etc. With what I read it means Federal Government have removed education subsidy as well from UNILAG. Please madam, stop the mathematics analysis and tell us the facts behind your millions percentage increment.
Fingers are not equal.
What quality of education do Nigerians expect with 19,000naira? What quality? No wonder lecturers are always upset, they’re putting their all and getting peanuts as salaries. #justiceforunilaglecturers
You get what you pay for.
If Nigerians are content to keep receiving crappy tertiary education, they should keep paying little or nothing for it. Even in nearby Ghana, universities charge multiple times what Nigerians pay,
Irony is that these same medical school students paying N190K (about $225), will run off to the UK or US after they graduate and moan to their debt-ridden foreign counterparts (in the US, medical doctors graduate with anywhere from an average of $250K to some over $1m in educational loan debt) that Nigeria has never done anything for them.