PhD program in Nigeria is research-based and capital-intensive. Unlike some countries where the program is fully funded, all the expenses for your program will be out of pocket. This means no one will finance the bills for you; it is your responsibility to pay them all. For this reason, most students desire to have work that will at least support them throughout the program. But in some cases, supervisors won’t want you to work.
I have a friend who works in one of the federal agencies in Nigeria and applied for PhD program. He was admitted to a PhD program at the University of Ibadan. His supervisor told him to resign if he wanted to do research in his lab. When he told me, I asked him if his supervisor would foot his bills, and he said No. I understand that PhD requires full concentration and being in the lab as often as possible to complete within the stipulated time. However, the way the program is run in Nigeria makes it almost impossible to run the program without being employed or given financial assistance. In the US, 90% of PhD students are fully funded with a monthly stipend. Aside from the tuition fee, which is free, you will be given a stipend that will help you cover housing, transportation, and feeding. With this, you don’t have a reason to seek a job outside the school you are doing your program.
The cost of the program can be divided into tuition fees and other expenses (cost of your research work). This cost varies with universities in Nigeria. What you will budget for federal and state Universities is different from private universities.
Tuition Fee
In Nigeria, the tuition fee for PhD programs is between N150,000 – N350,000 per session for federal state universities. If you check the invoice, the tuition fee will be between N40,000 – N80,000. Other charges like examination, medical, supervision, library, development, student union, etc., are what raise the total cost to the initial range (N150,000 – N350,000). Many schools will tell you their school fee is affordable, but the additional charges are what make it look big. The thing is that all must be paid at once. In addition, the cost for students in the faculty of science is different from those in the faculty of law. For those who want to apply to private universities, you must prepare to pay between N500,000 – N1,000,000, depending on the school. For example, the fee range for Babcock University is between N750,000 – N950,000. Faculty of Art has the cheapest price. I think this is general to most schools. The cost for the faculty of art programs is relatively more affordable when compared to science or medical sciences. To get the exact fee for the school of your choice, you can visit their website.
Cost of Research
You can’t get this on the school website as they don’t know your area of research. You might have the glimpse of the cost from what you write in your research proposal. But if there is a change in the research topic, you might not have a glimpse. For example, I have a friend who just finished his PhD. Before he started his program, he did not envisage that he would spend much as his interest is in computational physics. However, when he began, the computational resources that he needed were not in the school. In fact, it is not in Nigeria. So, he needed to look at schools abroad to see if he could make use of their cluster machine. If he had to use the one provided by some organizations, he would pay for it, and the cost would run into millions. To save the price, he needed to look for Professors in schools abroad who could give him access for free.
Some research work will require you to travel abroad for your benchwork. I have two of my colleagues who traveled out for their benchwork. One went to South Africa, while the other went to Italy. They stayed in the country for at least six months. All the traveling and feeding expenses were paid out of their pocket.
You must prepare for these expenses before you embark on the journey because you won’t be able to complete your work if you don’t have the financial strength. Well, in some cases, you may be lucky to have supervisors who are considerate and will give you topics that are not capital-intensive. This kind of topic is mainly for those in the art or education faculty.
