Some 100-level medical students at the University of Lagos have urged a Federal High Court in Lagos to cancel the decision of the University’s Senate, which allegedly changed the academic requirement needed by them to proceed to 200-level.
The students, numbering about 31, claimed that the decision taken by the University’s Senate on January 27 was “an attempt to weed them out of the university.”
Already, the case has been assigned to Justice Sule Hassan, who has fixed hearing for Tuesday (today).
The students accused the university of raising the academic requirement in order to accommodate diploma students, who allegedly paid N500,000 to the institution’s College of Medicine.
The aggrieved students, through their lawyer, Mr. Jiti Ogunye, therefore, urged the court to declare the Senate decision as a nullity.
They, among others, also sought an order of certiorari “removing and reviewing the decision.”
The students explained that they were admitted to the university in the 2014/2015 academic year to studyMedicine and Surgery, Dentistry, Medical Laboratory Science, Nursing, Physiotherapy, Pharmacology, Physiology and Radiography.
According to them, their admission followed their successful performance in the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination and the post-UTME set by the university.
They claimed that upon being admitted to the university, the academic requirements they needed to proceed to the second year were clearly stated in the Faculty of Science pre-Medical and Pharmacy Programmes 2014-2016 Information Handbook made available to them.
They added, “The said revision was not carried out with noble and genuine intentions to enhance academic standards in the MBBS and other medical programmes in the College of Medicine.
“It was also not for the reason of adherence to the admission quota of either the National Universities Commission or of the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria for the MBBS in the College of Medicine, (which is 150 for the College of Medicine).
“It was for the purpose of creating admission spaces for foundational course students who are given (or more appropriately sold) admission into the MBBS and other medical programmes upon participating in a one-year programme organised by a Joint Unified Preliminary Examination Board for which they paid to the university a minimum total fee of N400,000 per session.
“The said payment is part of the internally generated revenue of the university, a stream of revenue which has attracted wide criticism in the university system in Nigeria, for lack of transparency and accountability in its management.”
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