In the last one month, Several Nigerian universities that have increased tuition fees for both fresh and returning students.
This is coming in the wake of the announcement made by the government to stop funding universities thereby giving them the autonomy to determine their tuition as well as other bundle fees.
The Federal Government jointly also announced that indigent universities students are now eligible to obtain ‘Student Loans’ in order to both cushion the effect of the potential fee hike and to enhance their academic pursuits.
This article aims to enumerate the names of federal universities in Nigeria that have increased tuition fees in 2023.
Before we begin, shall we take a look at the pros and cons of the university autonomy?
Meaning of University Autonomy
A university will be said to be autonomous if it has total control over its daily run of both teaching and research activities, governance, administration and finance.
An autonomous university decides for itself the curiculum, policies, fees, who to admit, as well as how to admit them.
Any Benefit of University Automy in Nigeria?
The recurrent ASUU strike has made several educational experts, analysts and some arms of government to call for university autonomy. This allows them to determine how much to collect as tuition and also the gives them the right to pay their staff.
Developed countries of the world run autonomous university system. This has been the reason their facilities are state-of-the-art and their faculty are world-class. The tuition in these universities are sometimes never affordable for the average citizens. Students in these countries willing to pursue a degree usually resort to federal loans which they pay when they are employed.
With a strong quality control system is in place, university autonomy is expected to increase institutions’ capacity to enhance graduates’ competences and research output.
The Nigerian Government aim to achieve these, hence the announcement of the withdrawal of funding for universities. We will list the federal universities that have increased tuition fees in 2023 due to this reason in the subsequent paragraphs.
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Federal universities that have increased tuition fees
No sooner the Student Loan Bill was signed into law by the president, than many federal (state) universities announced a hike in their fees.
- University of Lagos
In a statement released yesterday, July 20, 2023 by the Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, UNILAG Branch, the university may hike fees to N190,250.00.
However, according to data provided by the Bursary Department of the University of Lagos to Leadership Newspapers on July 15, 2023, first-semester tuition for fresh full-time undergraduates in both the science and non-science faculties will currently be at N64,500.
The breakdown for new students is as follows: Acceptance fee: N20,000; registration fee: N5,000; ID card: N1000; results verification fee: N5,000; examination fee: N5,000; medical services fee: N5,000 (including drug test); library fee: N5,000; information technology fee: N2,500; endowment fund: N10,000; TISHIP fee: N5,000; and sports fee: N1000.
- Bayero University, Kano (BUK)
Shortly after the bill was signed, the management of BUK announced a 100% increase in tuition fees for her fresh and returning students.
As against the N39,000.00 paid in the previous session, fresh students in the faculties of Management, Islamic studies, Law, Social Sciences, and Arts will now pay N105,000.00, while returning students pay N95,000.00.
- Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike
According to reports, the tuition fee for fresh students is said to be increased from N53,000.00 to N80,000.00, while returning students will now pay a little less from the current N43,000.00.
- University of Nigeria, Nsukka
The Enugu-based university has also mulled an increment in tuition fees by over 100% since the suspension of the 8-month ASUU strike in September, 2022.
According to the schedule of the new tuition rates gathered by PUNCH obtained, students in the faculties of social sciences, education, agriculture, the arts, environmental sciences, engineering, and physical sciences would pay N83,500 per session as opposed to the previous N44,000, while new students would be required to pay N130,000 as opposed to N76,000.
The schedule also include that students in the colleges of veterinary medicine, law, medicine, dentistry, and health sciences would now pay N92,500 per session as opposed to the N50,000 they previously paid in tuition.
Now that the Student’s Loan Bill has been signed, we expect the official announcement by the management of the university as soon as possible. Scholars World will keep you up-to-date with this information as soon as it is released.
- University of Maiduguri (UNIMAID)
Unexpectedly, the university of Maiduguri has hiked tuition fees to N252,500.00 and N233,000.00 for fresh and returning students respectively. New students from the Faculty of Law are said to now pay N124,500.00, while fresh students will pay N105,000.00.
Students from the Faculty of Pharmacy will pay N159,000 and N175,000.00 (fresh and returning) respectively, while the tuition fees of students in Faculties of Science, Management, Arts and Social Sciences range from N75,000.00 to N109,500.00.
- University of Benin (UNIBEN)
The University of Benin has also announced an increase in tuition fees by over 100%. This also happened shortly after the signing of the Student Loan Bill.
Students in science-related faculties will now pay a sum of N190,000.00 as against the previous N73,000.00. Also, the tuition fee of students in Non-science related faculties was hiked from N69,000.00 to N170,000.00- over 240% increment.
- University of Abuja
The University of Abuja’s raised tuition range from N82,000 per year for arts programs to N225,000 per session of medical students.
The administrators of the University of Abuja announced an increase in fees. The university’s vice-chancellor Prof Rasheed Na’Allah, revealed that a committee had been working on the fee review for over a year, taking rising inflation into consideration while also comparing fees with other federal universities.
“Faculty deans and department heads presented their proposals, with the goal of providing practical experiences and necessary resources for their academic programs,” he stated.
- Ahamdu Bello University, Zaria (ABU)
The management of Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, has currently not increased tuition fees, albeit students are expecting tuition fee increment beginning from next session.
A slight increment from the previous N30,000.00 of last session to N53,000.00 in the current session indicates that the university may have adopted a phase-like increment.
- Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO)
Though there is an ongoing dialogue by the management and student representatives, the university’s tuition fee, which was around N39,300 for old students, is set to be increased to between N72,000 and N75,000.
- Federal University of Health Sciences, Azare
A memo issued by the Registrar the Federal University of Health Sciences, Azare in Bauchi State, A. A. Adamu on behalf of the management of the institution revealed that first year students for Medicine and Surgery, Dentistry, Nursing, Radiography, Nutrition and Dietetics would now pay over N300,000 as tuition fees.
According to the memo, first-year medical and dental students would pay N351,000 per session, while nursing, radiography, nutrition, and dietetics students will pay N331,000 per session.
However, the school stated that students might pay in two installments of 60% upfront for the first semester and 40% beforehand for the second semester.
Universities that have increased tuition: Conclusion
Though the increase in fees by several institutions have been met with strong resistance and condemnation by students and the public, it has become inevitable for virtually all universities to increase these fees so as to avoid prolonged ASUU strikes in the future.
We will keep updating this post as more universities announce.
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