The management of Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital has suspended the implementation of its newly introduced ₦580,000 tuition fee for nursing students following protests by students who decried the steep increase.
The hospital’s Chief Medical Director, Joseph Ugboaja, announced the decision on Thursday while appearing on The Morning Brief programme on Channels Television.
The decision comes days after nursing students staged protests over the fee hike, which represented an increase of more than 500 per cent from the previous ₦90,000 tuition.
Ugboaja explained that the management suspended the policy after consultations with student leaders, school authorities and members of the hospital’s governing board.
“What the students complained about was that they were not carried along at the final decision-making stage for the fees,” he said.
According to him, although students had earlier been consulted during the review process, they felt excluded when the final decision was taken.
Following the protest, Ugboaja said he convened separate meetings with the students, school management and the governing board, leading to the decision to halt the implementation of the new fee structure.
“So, 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,” he said.
He also clarified that the protest was not organised by the official student leadership but was largely driven by broader student concerns over the decision-making process.
Despite the suspension, the hospital’s management maintained that the revised tuition remains relatively modest compared with fees charged by similar institutions in the region.
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Ugboaja noted that the increase became necessary following changes to the institution’s training structure, which has transitioned from the traditional Registered Nurse/Registered Midwife (RN/RM) programme to a National Diploma and Higher National Diploma framework regulated by the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria.
He explained that under the new arrangement, the institution now operates two parallel programmes: the existing basic nursing and midwifery programmes and the newer ND/HND programme.
Students under the ND/HND programme have already paid the revised fees without raising objections, while those in the basic nursing and midwifery programmes—who previously paid ₦90,000—have expressed dissatisfaction with the sudden increase.
Ugboaja added that the ₦90,000 tuition had remained unchanged since the school was established, noting that the governing board considered the adjustment necessary to reflect current economic realities.
“Even with the ₦580,000, our fee remains the lowest in the South-East region,” he said.
The CMD also pointed to funding challenges facing teaching hospitals across Nigeria, noting that such institutions do not benefit from intervention funds from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund, which supports many higher education institutions.
He said the proposed fee review was also tied to NAUTH’s broader vision of transforming the facility into one of Nigeria’s top three teaching hospitals by 2030.
For now, however, the fee increase remains suspended as discussions continue between the management and students to determine a mutually acceptable path forward.