The University of Lagos has announced a reduction in tuition fees after meeting with the National Association of Nigerian Students executives following several protests.

Addressing journalists immediately after the meeting late on Thursday evening, the university’s vice-chancellor, Folashade Ogunsola, expressed satisfaction at the outcome of the meeting. 

“We just had a roundtable discussion with our faculty presidents and the NANS leadership and we also had the NANS president come into Lagos. We also had the NANS South-West leaders and that of the Lagos chapter. It was a very fruitful deliberation,” stated Ms Ogunsola. “Like everything, once you start something, you come back to the table to discuss and we are always listening to our students. When we heard loud and clear that they really wanted a reduction in fees, we felt it was important that we listened to that.”

She added, “And so, right now, management and the NANS have worked through how we could reduce, in a way that will not hurt the university, but we will make it a little better for parents and students alike. For returning students, we have agreed to take away N20,000 across board.”

Ms Ogunsola explained that rather than pay N100,000 as stipulated earlier, returning students would now pay N80,000 per annum. She said those with laboratory would now pay N120,000 instead of N140,000. Students in the medical field will pay N170,000 instead of N190,000 initially announced.

“Since then, it became clear that things are not getting any better and so, we also took a little away from the utility bills, which is coming down from the initial N20,000 to now N15,000 and also took out N3,000 from the convocation bills,” the vice-chancellor added. “For the incoming students, we slashed N10,000 from their fees each, because when we fixed these bills, it was based on data, it wasn’t just arbitrary and we already had moderations of these bills.”

NANS president Usman Barambu said “right now, we have also been able to ensure that the utility bills are brought down to N15,000, while the convocation fees have come down to N27,000.”

Mr Barambu added, “We also succeeded in bringing down the hostel fees to N43,000 as against the initial N90,000, the medical hostel at the College of Medicine Idi-araba to N65,000 from the initial N120,000. The fees for the Sodeinde hostel here on campus too was also reduced from N250,000 to N135,000.”

The university had, in a statement in August, put mandatory charges for new undergraduate students at N126,325 for courses without a laboratory or studio for one academic session. It indicated N176,325 as mandatory charges for one academic session for courses with laboratory and studio.

A further breakdown of the approved mandatory charges for one academic year or session for returning students showed that they would pay N100,750 for courses without laboratory and studio. According to the statement, the approved mandatory charges for laboratory and studio courses are N140,250.

The university approved N190,250 charges for all medical students. It noted that utility charges of N20,000 were to be paid by each undergraduate, while N30,000 was to be paid by all final-year students.

UNILAG attributed the hike to the need for students to get the best learning experience, which the students rejected and demanded reversal.

(NAN)