The University of Ilorin has come under scrutiny for imposing N1 million transfer/clearance fee on over 500 students who recently returned to Nigeria from universities in Sudan due to the war in the northeastern African country.

The affected students are pursuing various courses, including nursing, medicine, computer science, Sharia Law, and food science.

The controversy emerged when the students, who had successfully evacuated from Sudan and gained confirmation of their admission status from the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, were informed that they needed to pay N1 million each as a transfer/clearance fee before resuming their studies at UNILORIN.

According to Daily Trust, some students have reported even higher fee requests, while others remain uncertain about the exact amount.

One of the affected female students, who wished to remain anonymous, expressed her distress, saying, “They told us to pay N1 million, apart from the school fees, which we learned is a little less than N200,000. Some of us whose parents can afford it have already started paying after the school refused to consider our plea, but the majority are at a crossroads.”

Even students who could pay the fee were told that they could only be admitted starting from the second year, regardless of their previous academic progress in Sudan.

Academic adviser Mr. Gafari Lukman, who has written multiple letters to UNILORIN’s Vice Chancellor, Prof. Wahab Egbewole, and copied the JAMB Registrar, stressed the financial burden the fee imposed on these students.

Many of them had received scholarships in Sudan, and paying N1 million is a considerable hardship.

Hajiya Asmaa Yarima, one of the student coordinators, explained the confusion surrounding the fee, stating that initially, the transfer portal displayed N350,000 clearance fee.

However, it suddenly increased to N1 million after students gained admission.

Many students are on scholarships, but those sponsored by the university in Sudan face more significant challenges in continuing their education.

In response, Vice Chancellor Prof. Wahab Egbewole defended UNILORIN’s position, clarifying that the N1 million fee was not an act of exploitation but rather a necessity.

He argued that N1 million is still a reasonable fee, considering that it is less than a thousand dollars, a rate consistent with other international schools.

He stated “Because of the admissions process, we discovered that we will be incurring a number of costs and the normal transfer fee of N350,000 was no longer going to be enough because there are some hidden costs that are not apparent to many.

“In the last 15 years or thereabout, we have been charging N350,000, and we must appreciate the fact that whatever we charge them cannot be sustainable in 2023.

“The N1 million is less than a thousand dollars, and where they are coming from and other schools outside the country, none of them paid less than a thousand dollars.

“The impression is that the University of Ilorin is just exploiting them, asking them to pay N1 million after they have suffered so much.

“So, it is because of the circumstances that we found ourselves in terms of the facility and distribution of other things,”

Prof. Egbewole emphasized the university’s commitment to providing access to education and highlighted the challenges the institution faced in terms of facilities and distribution of resources.