By Oluwatosin Maliki
University of Calabar (UNICAL) students, have launched a protest, following the increase in tuition fees by 100 per cent.
Quest Times gathered that the school’s management held a meeting over the weekend, as they resolved to increase tuition fees.
According to a statement by the university’s PRO, Mr Effiong Eyo, who disclosed this to newsmen on Monday, explained that the upward review of the tuition fees was agreed upon at an emergency meeting of the University Senate on Friday.
Furthermore, the release noted that the implementation of the upward review will take effect from the 2022–2023 and 2023–2024 academic sessions.
Also, findings showed that with the increase, freshmen, returning students, and final-year students for the non-science courses are would pay N111,000, N91,500, and N114,000, respectively.
In addition, students are also required to pay N36,500, N21,500, and N21,500, respectively, as third-party dues.
Similarly, students fees in the science category were increased to N155,000, N125,000, and N148,000, respectively, for freshmen, returning students, and final-year students.
Likewise, they are also to pay N38,500, N21,500, and N21,500, respectively, as third-party dues.
Following this, students stormed the institution en masse, holding placards with various inscriptions to protest the hike in tuition fees as well as other charges, pleading with the management to reconsider it decision, admist harsh economic realities.
Some of the inscriptions include; “return to the old fees, bring back our old fees, we can’t afford the new fees, UNICAL SUG, wake up,” among others.
The angered students matched around the school premises, subsequently, they took their protest to the main gate of the school, hence, causing traffic congestion along Etta-Agbor and Mary Slessor roads in Calabar Municipality LGA.
Watch video:
[Video] Protest rocks UNICAL over fee hike, as students block major roads in Calabar pic.twitter.com/58YFDFEB6l
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It was learnt that before the increment, tuition fees for an average student, depending on the department, were N64,050 for freshers, N52,050 for the final year, and N49,500 for returning students.
However, the management explained that the increment was due to the current economic challenges and the need to further maintain the academic standard the university it has set and is known for in the country.