The University of Lagos (UNILAG) has denied implementing a new fee increase for undergraduate students, following concerns raised by students over changes in their portal payment statements.

On Tuesday, students raised alarms after noticing what appeared to be an upward review of fees on the institution’s portal. However, in a statement released Wednesday, the university’s Head of Communication Unit, Mrs. Adejoke Alaga-Ibraheem, clarified that the change was a result of consolidating all faculty and departmental dues into a single portal payment.

She explained that the move was in compliance with a directive from the Nigeria Education Loan Fund (NELFund), which requires institutions to centralize all student charges to streamline the student loan application process.

“This ensures that once students make payment through their official portal, no other payment will be collected at the faculty and departmental levels,” Alaga-Ibraheem stated.

A review of payment advice documents, however, showed that while the university’s official tuition remains unchanged, the consolidated quote includes significant adjustments and new charges. For instance:

• Department and faculty dues, previously N2,000, now appear as N15,000 on the portal.
• The UNILAG TISHIP fee increased from N5,000 to N7,500.
• Newly itemized charges include Entrepreneurship (N5,000), Portal Maintenance (N15,000), and Student Insurance Policy (N1,250), among others.

When confronted with these specific figures, the university maintained its position that this does not constitute a fee hike.

“What we have done is in the best interest of the students so that when they apply for NELFund, they get funding that covers every bill that they pay in school through a central system,” Alaga-Ibraheem said. “It is also important to note that the amounts reflected on the portals differ across programmes based on specific academic requirements. This does not amount to a fee hike but an integration of previously separate, legitimate dues.”

The university insists that these are not new costs but existing dues that students were previously paying separately, now brought into a centralized and transparent system.