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University of Port Harcourt Students and Admission Seekers Protest Tuition Fee Hike

I don’t know if it’s now a trend in Nigeria, that every month, one school or the other must go on protest, and seriously, why blame the students? When the schools in question here are only concerned about hiking the school fees without any thoughts to the students source of income?

Well, students of the University of Port Harcourt did not take the news lightly, when they got informed that the school management team is not planning to hike the school fee, but have already raise it to a higher amount.

The students took to the street to start chanting songs and expressing their displeasure, the students of the University of Port Harcourt on Monday described the fees increase as an “unnecessary and insensitive hike”. “We will not allow this,” they sang, as they protest.

They took their cries to the streets causing heavy vehicular traffic, with policemen trying to control the crowd, but the students are determined to make their voices heard.

Luckily, our correspondent, who was there, decide to interview and ask some students what is the amount the school asked them to pay?
They replied that the current and new fees is 41,400 Naira (about 256 dollars) instead of the 29,500 Naira paid last year, they claim is uncalled for, insisting that as a Federal University, the school fees should be affordable by all.

The students say the intervention fund provided to federal institutions by the Federal Government, when the Academic Staff Union of Universities embarked on a strike, had made the hike unacceptable.

The six month strike embarked on by the union was called off on December 17, 2013 after an agreement was reached that the Federal Government would disburse 20 billion Naira every quarter to the university authorities.

The students insisted that the money provided by the government was enough to run the institutions with adequate facilities provided.

After several attempts by Channels Television to reach the school authorities, the spokesperson of the school, Williams Wodi, said he would not make any comment on behalf of the institution at the moment.

The students also went on to say that they will NEVER rest till the school fee is returned back to it’s normal price of N29,500.

More details and updates coming soon, and we’ll update you with full details as to when the school authorities reply our request.

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