Students of the Marine Science Department at the University of Lagos, Akoka, have expressed frustration over the N300,000 fee required for a field trip to Ghana.
Scheduled for January 2025, PUNCH Metro gathered on Tuesday that the trip was intended to provide the students with “practical exposure.”
One of the students who spoke on the condition of anonymity told our correspondent that the trip fee had sparked complaints among the 400 and 500-level students, many of whom he said described the fee as unaffordable, citing the prevailing economic hardship in the country.
Some of the students, fearing victimisation, noted that the deadline for payment of the fee is December 1, 2024, lamenting that they were under pressure to come up with the money as the department said the trip would form part of their continuous assessment.
The male student said, “So, the thing is, it’s not just to Ghana, but there will be stopover places too. It’s practical, with different things to learn. We are going to see natural rocky shores in Ghana as the ones in Nigeria are artificial.
“The whole Ghana trip right now is the confines of the money. We’re all trying to make out the money to make sure we’re part of it. So far, financing has been an issue. We have so many financial challenges this session, so it’s a whole lot of burden for me, and I know it for every other student in my class.
“I’m still trying to get money down for it.”
Another unnamed student stated, “So, this Ghana trip thing is more of like a tradition in the department that has run from 2007 to 2020 and it has not been in part of the activities of the department for like four years now. And in these four years, people have graduated, and they’ve graduated well. Now, let it be known that students were looking forward to this trip because, I mean, it’s part of the experience because as far as you’re going through school, let the school go through you, right?
“But, with the events that are coming up right now, it is very clear that we cannot afford N300,000. School fees were increased as were our hostel fees. We can all agree that times are hard and this is making it harder.
“I can’t afford the trip. There are students taking loans from banks to pay their school fees and then they bring up the trip. Our school fee was increased and my project is N151,000 and now a field trip of N300,000. I just can’t. I don’t know the details of the trip. I am not interested because I can not afford it,” said a 400-level student in the department.
Another female student in her finals bemoaned that the fee was coming despite a series of recent increments in school and hostel fees.
“Since the increment of fees, they gave us an avenue to make part-payments and all. They increased hostel fees and said that our hostels are undergoing renovation. We are using our money to buy data and it is not very helpful. So, it’s very painful that a lecturer would see all these things happening and still ask students to pay N300,000 to go to Ghana for seven days.
“It’s not as if this trip cannot be done without. We’ve done without this trip for four years thereabouts. So why now? And now you’re saying that the onus is on us as students if we are unable to pay that money. I don’t have any problem with those who have the money to pay. But my own is the lecturer saying the trip is compulsory.
“Number two, almost all the lecturers in the department are going to be going for that trip. And, they have already told us that these lecturers would, under 80% or 85% chance, infuse this thing into their continuous assessments. And you and I know that CA makes up your total score, which in turn makes up your CGPA as a university student. So, imagine not being able to afford the N300,000 to go to Ghana, I’ll certainly fail,” the final-year student said, lamenting she did not want to fail.
PUNCH Metro recalls that last month, students of the school’s medical college protested a purported hike in their hostel fees.
It was learnt that the student affairs unit at UNILAG issued a memo announcing an upward review in the hostel fees for its medical college and pharmacy faculty in Idi-Araba, Lagos.
The raise, campus sources confirmed, was to affect all 300-level to 600-level students and take effect in the 2024/2025 session.
The management said all MBBS/BDS students desiring a bed space in the hostel were required to pay N100,000 for one year.
The university’s spokesperson did not respond to a PUNCH Metro inquiry on Monday over the development when called and texted multiple times.
Meanwhile, the Head of the Department of Marine Sciences, Professor Charles Onyema, when contacted, said he could not comment on the matter.
“You have to reach the university management because I am not allowed to give information to the media house like that,” he told PUNCH Metro.
When our correspondent reached out to the university’s Public Relations Officer, Adejoke Alaga-Ibrahim, she insisted that “a formal inquiry request” be sent.
“If this is an inquiry, can you send a formal inquiry request to the communication unit at unilag.edu.ng?,” she said in a telephone conversation.
