THE TEARS OF THE IBADAN COLLEGE OF MEDICINE STUDENTS PART 1
Wednesday, April 5, 2018. Our fears became confirmed, the reality dawned on us. It was no longer hear-say neither was it a rumour. The University of Ibadan Fee Schedule for the new session had been released on the website and students of the College of Medicine would be asked to fork out a sum of N100,000 in less than 10 days for an alleged Professional Training Fee. This will be in addition to a Clinical levy of N12,000, a school fee of N21,000 and an accommodation fee increased from N14,000 to N40,000. In total, by April 16, 2018, a medical student of the University of Ibadan would be asked to pay a sum of N173,000 excluding books and feeding costs in a Federal Institution. In addition to this, we have been informed that this fee will increase progressively over the coming sessions to the target amount of some N364,000 in a Federal institution.
Figure 1: Source: https://ui.edu.ng/news/undergraduate-students-schedule-levies-20172018-academic-session
How have we come to this point?
The leadership of the College of Medicine claim that the reason for such an outlandish rise in fees is the complete withdrawal of Federal Government subventions to the University of Ibadan in general and the College of Medicine in particular, and that the rough estimate of the cost of training a medical student is N564,000. Although we as students who live everyday of our lives in the deplorable state of the Ibadan College of Medicine know this reason to be completely false and do not trust whatever comes from a College that did not in any way carry us along in the decision making process nor explain to us how they came about such a laughable amount considering the kind of training we are subjected to, we ask the most pressing question: is Ibadan College of Medicine the only College of Medicine in Nigeria? If indeed the Federal Government has withdrawn subventions, we believe that it would not be an isolated event as all other Medical Training Facilities will experience the same. However, information available to us from the College of Medicine, University of Lagos (CMUL) says that their fees remain N22,000 with no additional fee while the University of Ilorin Medical Students pay a sum around N42,000. Therefore, it is obvious that the leaders of these other institutions have found better ways to survive the alleged shortfall of funds from the Government without making their students have to take the fall for it. Why can’t University of Ibadan College of Medicine do the same?
Figure 2: Source – cmul.unilag.edu.ng
Coming back home, we find a fatal flaw in the concept of the Professional Students Training Fee in that – the fee is meant to be for students who undertake Professional training which of course will include students who are enrolled in professional courses. Why then will students enrolled in courses such as: Physiology and Biochemistry which are not Professional courses be asked to be a fee meant for professional training (N75,000)? Moving on, if indeed these fees are meant to be for professional training – then it is completely illogical for it to be confined to students of the College of Medicine alone as Medicine, Dentistry, Physiotherapy, Nursing and Medical Laboratory Science are not the only Professional courses in the University. Other professional courses like: Law, Veterinary Medicine and Pharmacy do not require their students to pay such a mind-shattering sum of money for the training they receive. If indeed Federal Government has ceased their subventions to the University, all these other courses should inevitably be affected and a similar move should be made by their leaders but this is not the case.
An even more unfortunate case is that of the dental students who will be crossing over to dental school. A pre-requisite for their successful transition is that the purchase training equipments for an amount in excess of N150,000. These equipments under normal and sane conditions should be available in the Faculty of Dentistry for use by the students but given the regrettable state of the country and the University in particular, these students have to acquire these instruments for themselves and the cost of this is not captured in the N100,000 professional training fee. This means that an Ibadan Dental Student crossing over to Dental school will be required to pay a sum of N323,000 for the coming session.
Gone are the days when the children of the rich come to University of Ibadan. The leaders of the institution need to understand that the present times are no longer like their own time in school when the child of a Governor will be in University of Ibadan. The children of the rich now go abroad and if my parents really had the kind of money we are being asked to pay, I would be in a private university by now and not in any Federal University. My being in University of Ibadan is because I believe it will be affordable for me but in this situation I may have no other choice but to leave school mid-way in my training if I cannot raise my school fees. The erroneous perception that medical doctors and indeed medical students have money needs to be crushed as for many: Medicine and Surgery (MBBS) is a way out of poverty and not a privilege of wealth. Many students of the Ibadan Medical School have to struggle to raise the N33,000 we were being asked to pay before by engaging on other business ventures outside of school. Many sell items like: Zobo, Pepper, Boxers, fairly-used clothes, wigs etc. Many are electricians, some wash clothes of their peers just to have enough to sustain themselves. Asking such people to now pay such a sum is equivalent to saying MBBS (Ibadan) is no longer available to the son of the poor man and this will never be accepted.
………to be continued
Oluwafolajimi
A CONCERNED COMUI STUDENT.