Postgraduate students of the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Zaria yesterday threatened to take legal action against the university if management goes ahead to implement fees hike.
Speaking on behalf of the Postgraduate Students’ Representatives Council, Ja’afar Sani Bello, lamented the hike in fees despite the ‘harsh’ economic situation and decried the university management’s hard stance on the issue.
“I am an M.Sc II student in the Department of Agronomy, Faculty of Agriculture of the university. Our problem is the recent hike in the tuition fees by the management of ABU. Last year, for example, I paid N53,000, but coming back this year, we realised that there is increase of between 200 to 400 per cent. For instance in our department, students are now expected to pay N110,000 or N113,000, instead of the N53,000 paid last year. This excludes what students would be paying for research work, accommodation and other necessities. We have contacted the university management but they were adamant. The hike is harsh considering the economic environment of Nigeria. If we exhaust all avenues, we would be left with no alternative than to go to court to seek an injunction to restrict the university from implementing the hike. We want to appeal to the Federal Government to realise that postgraduate studies play a vital role in growth and transformation of countries,” Bello said.
Bello drew comparism between Postgraduate students’ fees in ABU and neighbouring universities of Bayero University (Kano) and Dan Fodio University (Sokoto) which he said was cheaper as they charge less than N60,000 for PG students.
Reacting to the threat, the Vice Chancellor of ABU, Professor Abdullahi Mustapha and DVC (Admin), Professor Na’iya Sada, advised the students against dragging the institution to court because they would have nothing to gain by so doing. Professor Sada said postgraduate programmes in ABU are cheaper compared to other universities.
THE UNIVERSITY SHOULD NOT BE BLAME IT IS DUE TO ECONOMIC DOWN TURN.THEY WILL REVERSE THEIR DECISION WHEN THE ECONOMY IS UPTURN.
Let God touch their heart !
The increment is outrageous and should be reversed with immediate effect.The federal government should intervene in this matter with a view to cutting down the exhobitant fees charged for PG programmes in all federal universities across the nation.This will encourage more students to go for PG studies especially considering the increasing number of universities in the country and the NUC stance on minimum qaulification of a PhD for lecturers.The government should encourage students to go into the academia not discourage them with high fee charges.Government can even give automatic appointments as graduate assistants to 1st class and second class upper graduates from federal universities especially in the sciences to serve as incentives.
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The good observation to provide a productive and qualitative student in the society is with kindness, politeness and trust to help make changes in a society at large. Moreover , the school fees is too much for the masses, and called on school directives to show mercy to comeout with an affordable fee for Nigerian people. Pls.
I am strongly against the hike in fees by the university. it is now glaring that the government care less about University education because if they do, why the fee hike? or are they saying that post graduate studies is not part of learning? irrespective of the fact that the basic knowledge has been taken care of in Primary, Secondary and First degree: it is still important to train its citizens who want to further in knowledge in other to assist in the development and stability of the country.