The group accused the institution’s management of commercialising public education and promoting inequality.
The Concerned Students’ Movement (CSM), Nigeria, has condemned what it described as an “outrageous and exploitative” increase in acceptance fees for newly admitted students of the University of Benin (UNIBEN).
The group accused the institution’s management of commercialising public education and promoting inequality.
According to a statement signed by Feranmi Gabriel, Coordinator of the movement, and Omolaye Emmanuel, its Secretary, the university recently raised the acceptance fee for fresh students from ₦60,000 to ₦122,000 for science courses and ₦115,670 for non-science courses, a decision the group says is “arbitrary, insensitive, and morally indefensible.”
The statement reads: “This arbitrary and insensitive decision by the university management is without any explanatory or moral basis. It is nothing short of exploitation and a blatant decision to commercialise public education and deny students their constitutional right to accessible and affordable learning.
“The management's unilateral hike in acceptance fee is simply a ploy to manipulate the admission process in favour of the rich, thereby marginalizing students from working-class and low-income families who struggle daily to survive. Education in a public institution like UNIBEN must never be a privilege reserved for the wealthy.
“The Concerned Students’ Movement calls for the immediate conveyance of a Students’ Union Congress, where students can collectively and courageously decide their aggregate stand on this injustice. This is not a time for silence or submission by the Students' Union. It is rather a time for unity, students' interest and uncompromising resistance.
CSM alleged that the management’s unilateral hike was a deliberate attempt to make the admission process elitist, shutting out students from working-class and low-income backgrounds who already struggle to meet basic financial obligations.
The group accused the Students’ Union leadership of being silent in the face of what it called “daylight robbery,” and demanded the immediate convening of a Students’ Union Congress to allow students to decide a collective response to the hike.
The statement added: “We call on all UNIBEN students to reject fear, which is already being spread by anti-student welfare elements and agents of the State Security Service (SSS). To be clear, there is no safer alternative to resistance. Silence, fear, arrogance and ignorance only emboldens exploitation and the oppressive characters who do not care to rig the right to public education.
“As an education right movement, we equally call on Nigerian students across all campuses, as well as the UNIBEN staff unions and the general public, to rally in solidarity with UNIBEN students. The struggle for affordable education is a collective one. We must fight this exploitative policy alongside the students, until it is reversed and the sanctity of public education defended.”