Students of the University of Calabar (UNICAL) have taken to protest to air their views over a hundred percent increase in the university’s tuition fees for undergraduates.
The students who gathered at the Malabor Square, which houses the Students Union Government secretariat, protested with various inscriptions like: “Florence Obia, UNICAL is not a private university, which one is ‘slight increment’, say no to billing”, “UNICAL VC, stop forcing girls into prostitution”, centre“this is a federal university, not a business center,” among others.
The management of the university had announced an increase in the university’s tuition fees for undergraduates by over 100 percent.
The announcement, made in a statement on Monday, said the upward review of the fees was taken at an emergency meeting of the university’s Senate on Friday.
According to the university, the increase was necessitated by the current economic realities.
With the increment, freshers, returning students and final-year students for the non-science courses are expected to pay N111,000, N91,500 and N114,000, respectively.
In addition, they are also to pay N36,500, N21,500 and N21,500, respectively, as third-party dues.
Similarly, fees for science courses were increased to N155,000, N125,000 and N148,000, respectively, for freshers, returning students and final-year students.
Likewise, they are also to pay N38,500, N21,500 and N21,500, respectively, as third-party dues.
Before the increment, tuition fees for an average student, depending on the department, was N64,050 for freshers, N52,050 for the final year and N49,500 for returning students.
