The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) has expressed concern over the astronomical increase in tuition fees by some institutions, ranging between 20 and 521 per cent, The Guardian has learnt.
A document obtained from the Fund’s internal risk management unit noted that the recent surge in tuition fees across various institutions, particularly for programmes such as Medicine, Nursing, and Law, has placed a significant financial burden on students and strained the Fund’s operations.
Titled ‘Report on Framework to Mitigate the Impact of Increased Institutional Charges on the Fund’s Operations,’ the document listed the affected institutions as the University of Ilesha, Osun State; Ekiti State University; University of Medical Sciences, Ondo; Edo State University; Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), Oyo State; and David Umahi Federal University of Health Sciences (DUFUHS), Ebonyi State.
This development comes barely six months after The Newsmen reported that at least 51 institutions had been implicated in illegal deductions and exploitation of the scheme.
In July this year, the newspaper also reported that the Fund had rejected loan applications from 10 tertiary institutions due to excessive fee hikes of up to 900 per cent.
Giving details of the increases, the report obtained by The Newsmen indicated that the University of Ilesha raised its Nursing programme fee from N825,000 to N1.276 million, representing a 55 per cent hike, while the Law programme rose from N1.276 million to N1.526 million, a 20 per cent increase.
The document showed that Ekiti State University increased its Medicine and Surgery fee from N797,000 to N1.132 million, representing a 42 per cent hike. Similarly, Edo State University raised the same programme’s fee by N1 million, from N3.250 million to N4.250 million, representing a 31 per cent hike.
This means that a medical student at Edo State University, studying from 100 to 600 level, would graduate with a debt burden of over N51 million.
For the University of Medical Sciences, Ondo, the report indicated that the state-owned institution significantly raised tuition fees for three courses, with increases ranging from 40 to 149 per cent.
The document revealed that the school’s Nursing charges rose by 149 per cent, from N900,000 to N2.245 million, an increase of N1.345 million. Similarly, the Community Health programme rose from N1.2 million to N1.683 million, representing a 40 per cent increase, while Medicine and Surgery spiked from N1.320 million to N2.245 million, a 70 per cent hike.
Also mentioned was LAUTECH, which increased its Medicine and Surgery programme fee from N126,000 to N782,000; a 521 per cent increase. The school also raised its Biomedical and Nursing programme fees by 410 per cent, marking a significant increase of N516,000 respectively.
For David Umahi Federal University of Health Sciences (DUFUHS), Ebonyi State, the tuition fee for Medicine and Surgery was increased by about 46 per cent, from N1.030 million to N1.5 million.
In the lead-up to the reopening of the student loan portal last October, it was observed that some institutions had significantly increased their tuition fees.
They include the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB), which raised institutional charges for all levels by between 25 and 67 per cent; Federal University, Oye-Ekiti (FUOYE), by between 10 and 120 per cent; and Kogi State Polytechnic, by between 115 and over 1,000 per cent.
NELFUND may halt disbursements to defaulting schools
To mitigate the impact of increased institutional charges on the Fund’s operations, the committee made far-reaching recommendations, including pausing disbursements to schools with extreme increases pending review, capping loans for affected institutions until a long-term solution is finalised, or temporarily halting loans to institutions where fee hikes exceed 100 per cent until a thorough review is conducted.
For long-term strategies, the report urged the Fund to collaborate with the Federal Ministry of Education to establish national fee guidelines, publish updated loan policies and fee thresholds on the agency’s website, and allow students to report unfair fee practices anonymously.
According to the Student Loan Disbursement Dashboard released last week, NELFUND had, as of September 26, disbursed over N107.6 billion to 581,878 students across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
A breakdown of the disbursements showed that institutional fees accounted for N61.3 billion, while upkeep allowances amounted to N46.3 billion.