From Uchenna Inya, Abakaliki
Parents and guardians of students of the David Umahi Federal University of Health Sciences, Uburu, Ebonyi State, have cried out over the hike in tuition fees by management of the university and urged Minister of Education to urgently intervene.
A statement by the Bursary Department of the institution indicated that Medicine and Surgery has increased of 42.86 percent from N1.3 million in the 2023/2024 academic session to N1.5 million in the new 2025/2026 session while Pharmacy and Nursing Sciences were jacked up from N730,000 in the 2023/2024 academic session to N1.5 million in the new 2025/2026 academic session which represents approximately 43.84 percent increment.
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Reacting to the new development, businessman, Chief Ozor Festus, who claimed that his two children both gained admission to study medicine and surgery and pharmacy lamented that despite the brilliance of his children that made them gain admission on merit, it is now seeming like a curse as he cannot afford to cough out nearly N3 million to process the entrance of his children for a university he felt was being funded by the Federal Government.
“A lot of parents are grumbling over the school fees for new students because it is a federal and not a private university. Even in private universities, the fees are not this outrageous.”
He said although the fees covered their accommodations, it was still on the high side. “We are begging the Minister for Education to come and help us bring these high fees down to where other parents like us can afford.
“I know that there are some who can pay it but it is not right for a new federal university to pay such a huge amount. I think even UNN, which is a premier university, still pays around N200,000 or thereabouts. Or did they build the hostels with gold? I almost didn’t believe it because I thought it was around N1 million for both courses.”
Also reacting, a retired civil servant whose daughter gained admission to study Medicine and Surgery, Mrs. Roseline Eze, decried the development. “We are truly helpless because we don’t know what to do now. They have given new fees and people like us who are retirees may not be able to meet up with the new fees unless there’s an intervention.”
She called for a probe by the Federal Ministry of Education on why such high fees are being demanded and who is responsible for it. “I have heard that this school is expensive but I didn’t know it would reach up to this because the Federal Government pays all the staff.”
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