University of Calabar students protest over tuition fee hike

The University of Calabar experienced a halt in academic activities on Monday as students staged a protest against a 100% increase in tuition fees for the upcoming academic sessions (2022/2023 and 2023/2024). The university had recently released a new fee schedule, leading to dissatisfaction among the students.

During the peaceful protest, students blocked the roads leading to the campus, causing disruption to both vehicular and pedestrian movement. Approximately 100 protesters, armed with fresh leaves and placards bearing various inscriptions, expressed their grievances.

Some of the inscriptions included: “We came to school to study, not to kill our parents,” and “The Vice Chancellor of UniCal went to school in her days free of charge but today wants to kill students with crazy charges.”

Tony Erei, one of the protesters, stated in an interview with NAN that they would continue the protest until the university reverted to the previous fee structure. Erei highlighted the economic challenges faced by Nigerians, emphasizing the untimeliness of fee hikes when students and parents are still grappling with previous increments.

Amarachi Obialor, another student, described the situation as “sheer wickedness and insensitivity by our leaders.”

To maintain order during the protest, a heavy presence of police personnel was observed around the demonstrators. The revised fees now require fresh students, returning students, and final year students in non-science courses to pay N111,000, N91,500, and N114,000, respectively. Additionally, third-party dues for these categories are set at N36,500, N21,500, and N21,500.

For science-based courses, the fees increased to N155,000, N125,000, and N148,000 for freshers, returning students, and final year students. Third-party dues for these categories are N38,500, N21,500, and N21,500.

Before the fee hike, the average student paid N64,050 for freshers, N52,050 for final year, and N49,500 for returning students, depending on the department.