The Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital (NAUTH) in Nnewi, Anambra State, has suspended the controversial new ₦580,000 tuition fee for nursing students after widespread protests by the affected students over the massive hike from the longstanding ₦90,000.
Joseph Ugboaja, the Chief Medical Director of the hospital, announced the suspension of the outrageous tuition fee during an interview on Channels Television’s programme on Thursday.
The proposed 500 per cent-plus increase in the nursing students’ tuition fee had triggered outrage among the students, who took to the streets in recent days to protest against what they described as an unaffordable and shocking hike that could force a lot of them to drop out.
Announcing the decision of the management of the institution, Ugboaja said the suspension of the new fee followed meetings with student leaders, the school management and the governing board after the protest.
“What the students complained about was that they were not carried along in the final decision-making for the fees,” he said.
“They know that there was a review, their opinion was sorted, but at the level of making a decision, they said there were not carried along.
“So, I had a meeting with them, I had a session with the school management, I also had a session with the board, and we have decided that the management will suspend the implementation of the new policy.
“So, we have stopped it, and then the committee is now going back to them to have a session with the students and all of them will come together and agree on the way forward,” he added.
The Chief Medical Director said that the protest was not initiated by the student leaders but was largely driven by concerns that students were not properly involved in the final decision-making process regarding the fee review.
However, Ugboaja defended the proposed fee hike, insisting that the ₦580,000 tuition remains the lowest in the South-East region.
According to him, the review became necessary following the transition from the basic nursing programme to a National Diploma and Higher National Diploma structure introduced by the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria.
“What we were running before is the RN/RM programme, that is the basic nursing programme, but recently we moved to the ND programme articulated by the Nigerian Nursing and Midwifery Council. So, we are now running the ND/HND programme,” Ugboaja said.
He added, “Now we have two sets of students, the basic nursing and basic midwifery students and then we have the ND and HND students.
“People who were paying the N90,000 are the basic nursing and midwifery students. But the ND and HND students have paid the fees, they don’t have issues; people who have issues are the people who have been paying the ₦90,000.”
Ugboaja further said, “The basic nursing and basic midwifery students have been paying ₦90,000 since the school commenced. In fact, we have not reviewed our fees since we started the school, that fee has been paid like that.
“Now, what the board did was to adjust the fees to come up with current realities. Even with the ₦580,000, our fee remains the lowest in the region. You can find out. I can give you the comparative figures.”
Ugboaja also lamented that teaching hospitals do not benefit from intervention funds from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), which he said contributed to the need for an upward review of the fees.
He added that the fee adjustment was also linked to the institution’s vision of building a teaching hospital that would rank among the top three in Nigeria by 2030.
