UNIMAID increases tuition, hostel fees few days to resumption

Caleb Ijioma


Barely four days to the commencement of a new academic session, the authorities university of Maiduguri have announced an upward review of the school fees and hostel fee.

In a document signed by the institution registrar, Tijani Bukar, obtained by this reporter on Wednesday, the newly introduced fees will take effect from 2019/2020 academic session.


This reporter gathered that the tuition for engineering students has been increased from 26000 naira to  34900 naira while mass communication students are to pay thirty-six thousand naira instead of the initial twenty-four thousand naira.

Also, for Medicine and Surgery, the tuition has been increased from 36,000 naira to 115,000 naira and Physiotherapy department's increased from 28,000 to 60,000.


The Hostel fee has been hiked up from the former 10,000 naira to 22,000 naira.

However, some students of the university have expressed disapproval in reaction to the newly introduced school fees.

These students on Wednesday expressed their  grievances on social media platforms using the hash tags #endungodlychargesinunimaid #unimaidfeehike.


Emmanuel Onyekwere, a student who spoke to our reporter, described the action of the school management as ungodly and inhumane.

"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?"



Meanwhile, in a telephone interview with the Student Union President, Farouk Muhammad Ahmad, on Thursday, he disclosed that the student body is yet to know the the cause of the increment and that the university vice Chancellor is presently 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 (Wednesday) 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 plea 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 about the union's stance on 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."
The hash tag #UnimaidFeeHike and #endungodlychargesinunimaid had over eighteen thousand tweets in two days starting from Wednesday.
Some of the comments made my student on Twitter was against the increment of Tuition fees.

Some of the comments can be seen below

Muhammad Abubakar
@Mbakumo
Almost 2 years minimum wage is yet to be implemented, but Unimaid multiplies tuition fees four times overnight from an initial amount of #28000 to #104900 #UnimaidFeesHike #EDUCATIONMUSTBEFREE
@daily_trust
@DailyPostNGR
@MBuhari
@Laurestar

Adam Mó
@adamm_mo
RT ifyou see #UnimaidFeesHike Thesame Leaders that enjoyed Free Education with Professional International Lecturers are now imposing a Policy that detriment some students.be Education Most be Affordable and Unimaid should change this policy and reduce fees


Jacob Ijuptil
@IjuptilJacob
Fellow Unimaidites! The world must hear our voice. Change does not come like thi How can this be??? Over night hike tuition fee Hostel accommodation Everything is now unaffordable #EndUngodlyChargesInUnimaid #UnimaidFeesHike

Adam Mó
@adamm_mo
Unimaid is A school with very Harsh Environment of study with Where you will see over 4000 students in a Class that is ment for 1000, & some lecturers violate every ought and abuse their position treating students like Slaves failing Almost half of faculty. #UnimaidFeesHike

Education should be affordable for everyone.
Education is right not a privilege.
Medicine is for the competent one’s not the riches.
Ungodly increment in School fees must be reversed.@DrAhmadLawan @GovZulum @MBuhari @NigeriaGov @ProfOsinbajo @femigbaja#UnimaidFeesHike pic.twitter.com/NhH3JLYfna

— 𝐀𝐛𝐛𝐚𝐔𝐬𝐦𝐚𝐧 (@abbausman) October 24, 2019

Initially Engineering returning students paid #26000 but now it's #34900, 26K for masscomm now its 34K
Hostel from
10k to 22k
Medical College...MBBs from 36k to 115
Physiotherapy from 28K to 60K#endungodlychargesinunimaid#unimaid #unimaidfeeshike pic.twitter.com/l5Yuzwafvr

— Caleb ijioma (@Da_funkiest) October 23, 2019

In one voice all Students of the the prestigious University of Maiduguri, #Unimaid say no to outrageous fees. It is not in our best interest!!
@bashirAmaad#EndUngodlyChargesInUnimaid#UnimaidFeesHike pic.twitter.com/mzxCHKxK2c

— #UnimaidFeesHike (@officialralphp1) October 24, 2019

A circular was released yesterday by the Senate and management of unimaid,notifying students 0f 100% increment of tuition fee. These people study up to their professorship free,why then denying the children of the poor same opportunity.#EndUngodlyChargesInUnimaid #UnimaidFeesHike pic.twitter.com/iKoH6JTAb6

— #PrayforDadiyata🔴 (@sadiqsans) October 24, 2019

However, the national association of Nigerian students(Nans) through its twitter handle disclosed that the body have opened talks with the university and and have demanded total reversal of the new tuition and hostel fees.

Discussions have been opened with the school management. We have demanded 100% reversal of fee increments, further updates will be made available as we progress. https://t.co/DiL8cOpbwO

— NANS (@NANSNIG) October 25, 2019