The management of Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital (NAUTH) has suspended the implementation of its newly introduced ₦580,000 tuition fee for nursing students following protests by students of the institution.
The decision was announced by the hospital’s Chief Medical Director, Joseph Ugboaja, during an interview with journalist.
The tuition hike had sparked outrage among students after fees were raised from ₦90,000 to ₦580,000 — an increase of over 500 per cent — prompting protests within the institution.
Prof. Ugboaja said the management decided to suspend the implementation of the new fee structure after engaging with student leaders, school authorities, and the hospital’s governing board.
According to him, the core grievance raised by students was that they were not adequately involved in the final decision-making process regarding the fee review.
“What the students complained about was that they were not carried along in the final decision-making for the fees,” Ugboaja said.
“They know that there was a review and their opinion was sought, but at the level of taking the final decision they said they were not carried along.”
He explained that several meetings were held to address the concerns and prevent further escalation.
“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,” he said.
“We have stopped it and 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.”
The NAUTH chief added that the protest was not initiated by the student leadership but was largely driven by widespread concerns among students over the consultation process.
Despite suspending the implementation, Ugboaja defended the proposed fee increase, arguing that the ₦580,000 tuition remains the lowest among nursing schools in Nigeria’s South-East region.
He explained that the fee review became necessary following the transition from the traditional Registered Nurse/Registered Midwife (RN/RM) programme to a National Diploma (ND) and Higher National Diploma (HND) structure approved 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,” he said.
“So we are now running the ND/HND programme.”
Ugboaja noted that students already enrolled in the ND/HND programmes had accepted the revised fees, while the objections mainly came from students previously paying ₦90,000 under the basic nursing and midwifery programmes.
“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,” he explained.
“What the board did was to adjust the fees to reflect current realities. Even with the ₦580,000, our fee remains the lowest in the region.”
The NAUTH CMD also lamented that teaching hospitals do not benefit from intervention funds provided by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), a factor he said contributed to the decision to review tuition fees.
He added that the fee adjustment forms part of NAUTH’s broader vision to transform the institution into one of Nigeria’s leading teaching hospitals by 2030.
