Protest as UNILAG considers raising hostel fees for medical students

Students at the University of Lagos (UNILAG) medical college are protesting an imminent hike in their hostel fees.

On Tuesday, the student affairs unit at UNILAG issued a memo announcing an upward review in the hostel fees for its medical college and pharmacy faculty in Idi-Araba, Lagos.

TheCable understands that students were also instructed to vacate the halls on Wednesday morning.

The raise, campus sources confirm, is to affect all 300-level to 600-level students and take effect in the 2024/2025 session.

The management said all MBBS/BDS students desiring a bed space in the hostel are now required to pay N100,000 for one year.

It said all B.Sc (non-medical) students seeking a bed space are required to pay N80,000.00 for two semesters.

The management said students who have paid the old rate of N65,000 should pay the difference of either N15,000 or N35,000 as applicable to balance up and obtain a single receipt from its cash office.

The hike, which has reportedly been halted, caused students to march to the administrative building of the campus in protest.

As of this report, the UNILAG public relations person is yet to respond to enquiries on the matter.

Last year, UNILAG announced an upward review in its fees that took effect from September 2023.

This put the sessional mandatory charges for new undergraduate students at N‎126,325 for courses without a lab/studio and N176,325 for one academic session for courses that use a laboratory or studio.

The sessional mandatory charges for returning students were put at N100,750 for courses without labs and studios while that of courses with access to labs and studios were fixed at N140,250.

UNILAG also said the approved charge for all medical students of the institution is N190,250.

The fee hike sparked protests and repeated negotiations with the university management.