Students of the university of Maiduguri has expressed strong disapproval of the newly introduced school fees by the school management.
In a document signed by the institution registrar, Mr Tijani Bukar, the newly introduced fees will take effect from the 2019/2020 academic session.
Students who spoke to EduCeleb.com said that the initial school fees for engineering students was N26000 but has now been increased to N34900, Mass Communication school fees was increased from 24 thousand to 36 thousand, Hostel fee increased from 10,000 to 22,000, medicine and surgery was increased from 36,000 to 115,000.
Physiotherapy school fees was increased from 28,000 to 60,000, among other fees.
Students have however expressed displeasure and have taken to social media platforms to express their grievances using the hash tag #endungodlychargesinunimaid #unimaidfeehike
A student, Emmanuel Onyekwere, who spoke to our reporter said the action of the school management is ungodly, inhumane and unthoughtful.
“This in it’s best word could be termed inhumanity, ungodly, unthoughtful. There are two things to be put into consideration here, the first is the time. We barely had two weeks long vacation to resume a fresh academic session. Many students here are the ones footing their bills in this university – how could the University management be so impassionate. The news is coming four days into a new academic session, most students are already back with what they are used to, how do we start coping with this?”
“The second is the rate of the increment, they are so alarming!!! Medical student for instance will now pay a whooping hundred and five thousand naira as against the former 36,500 – where in God’s name does this happen? Hostels were hiked from 10,000 to 22,000 and we find this unbearable and insensitive.”
“I was moved to lead a movement when I saw the reactions of my fellow students pouring out their disappointment and dismay. this is simply a drive to deprive them children of the poor the opportunity they have to get educated and we must all rise against it! We won’t allow it,” he said.
In a telephone interview with the student Union President, Farouk Ahmad told EduCeleb.com that the Students’ Union was yet to know the cause of the increment and that the university’s Vice-Chancellor was in Abuja for a meeting at the National Assembly.
“I will have to find out from the management, this is one of the efforts we’ve been making since yesterday. We’ve been reaching out to some Members of the senate and management in other to root out the cause of the increment”
“It was released yesterday evening which most of the management staffs were not on sit. The vice Chancellor is out of town to the National assembly, but insha Allah, together with the incoming SUG President, we will find a way out”
“We will see the possibility of the management accepting our plead because students are going to be at the receiving end most especially on the fact that that students have just two weeks break from the last session. Most of the students might not be able to meet up with the financial obligations”, he said.
When asked if the Union was in support of the online protest led by students, he said, “the most important thing is that before going into any protest, you have to find out what is the cause of the increment. We wouldn’t want a situation whereby we will be part of the protest now and at the end of the day we’ll realize that the increment is for the benefit of the student. we will therefore find out the reason for the increment before we can be able to act.
“Students are therefore pleading for the total reversal of these fees and the intervention of the federal government.”
