50 Medical Students, Many More May Drop Out of School as Kano Varsity Tuition Rise. 

The dreams of the medical students of Bayero University, Kano, to become medical students may soon be ruined due to their inability to pay the new registration fee.

Among the 170 people in the current 300-level set, about 50 from lower-income families could not afford the over 200 percent increase now being proposed by management.

Before the current pay system, MBBS/BDS students had to pay N50,000, including registration and departmental fees. However, the price could reach N220,000. Aside from the medical students, thousands of students from other faculties suffering similar difficulties have appealed for assistance.

Although the university administration declared last week that the payment window would be extended until September 1 to enable parents to pay the bill, it was unclear whether the majority of indebted parents would be able to fulfil the deadline given the current economic situation.

In response to the rise in the registration fee, the Vice Chancellor of the University, Professor Adamu Abbas Sagir, stated that the administration was forced to raise the threshold of fees in order to meet the minimal resources required to run the university.

Furthermore, the VC claimed that BUK has the lowest tuition fee among other higher education institutions in Northern Nigeria. He went on to say that, contrary to popular belief, the administration has no aim of intentionally making things tough for students.

Professor Sagir, who recently spoke with journalists about the situation, indicated how tough it has been for the university to satisfy its fundamental demands under enormous duties.

Although he acknowledged a monthly overhead remittance of N11 million from the Federal government, the VC emphasised that he spends at least N150 million monthly to run electricity, supply water, offer security, and provide other outsourcing services.

“We did a general analysis of the cost of everything we disburse on in the university, and the final fee announced is the minimum we need to run the system. Anything below that standard will fall short of the standard, and that would affect the academic and administrative systems.

“Moreso, I want to challenge members of the society to find out the amount we charge and compare it with other universities. You will find out that BUK is charging the least. And that was the reason we initially broke our two-week period of payment to one month to enable parents to meet up with the payment.

“The management understands the reality of the economy, and we cannot deliberately mount pressure on parents because we are all from the same background. Yet, we can’t do otherwise. The Federal government only pays N11 million monthly as overhead while we spend over N35 million on diesel for two weeks”, VC noted.