Tension is high at the University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus (UNEC), as medical students under the Faculty of Health Sciences and Technology continued their protest on Thursday, October 9, over an additional ₦30,000 development fee imposed by the faculty.
The students, who took to the streets within the campus, chanted solidarity songs and carried placards rejecting what they described as an “unjust and exploitative” charge. They accused the Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences and Technology of arbitrarily introducing the new fee despite students having already paid similar charges in their school fees.
According to the protesters, the additional ₦30,000 was tagged as a development levy but was never part of the original payment schedule released by the university management.
We have already paid all approved fees, including development charges, yet the Dean is demanding an extra ₦30,000 from each student. Those who have not paid are being denied the right to write their semester exams,” one of the protesters told reporters.
The protesting students expressed anger that the management halted their ongoing semester examinations over their refusal to pay the new fee.
They stopped us from entering the examination hall today. This is unfair and oppressive. We are not against paying legitimate fees, but this one is illegal and exploitative,” another student said.
The protesters also questioned the justification for the new charge, citing reports that ₦44 billion was recently allocated to the university for infrastructural development.
If ₦44 billion has been allocated for development, why should students still be forced to pay more?” one placard read.
University authorities have not yet issued an official statement on the matter, and efforts to reach the Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences and Technology for comment were unsuccessful.
Meanwhile, student leaders are calling for an urgent dialogue with the Vice Chancellor, insisting that exams should resume only after the fee is scrapped.
We are not leaving until this exploitative policy is reversed. Education should not be turned into a profit-making venture,” a student representative said.
