Is It True that Part-Time Fee is Higher than Full Time?

Par-Time students fees!

When a prospective part-time applicant or a newly admitted part-time student asks what the fee or tuition will be, you should think of a few variances.

The part-time student wants to know:

1. if truly the cost of running the part-time course is usually higher
2. if the full-time students are paying less than the part-time students
3. if there will be reductions in the part-time fees as students continue to other levels of the programme
4. if it's possible to pay the fees installmentally (part-payment)

This post will be concentrating on the general belief that part-time students will pay more fees than regular students. More so, other related questions will be attended to.

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Part-Time Programme Fees are Usually Higher But It Varies

There is no doubt about it, the school fees for the part-time students will be higher than their full-time counterparts. This is because, part-time programmes, are usually administered and funded by the school management without or with a little subsidy from the government (if such a school is government-owned).

Unlike the full-time courses that government pays for, part-time programmes will require the fees being paid by the students to service the programme including the lecturer's wages/salaries. Hence, there may be a small hike in their tuition.

There is probably no university, polytechnic or college that is accepting the same fee from both part-time and full-time students. There is a general expectation that there should be a reasonable difference.

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The Higher Tuition Being Paid By Part-Time Students My Not Be Significant

Even though it's usually said that these students will pay higher, yet the difference may not be that hurtful. Part-time students usually pay a little higher.

It's safe to say that they may pay about 20% higher than the full-time students compare to the unfounded claim that they generally pay 50% or 100% higher.

This doesn't mean that some schools don't charge unreasonable increments of about 100%. Yet, if you do your homework well, you should know if you're dealing with schools with friendly part-time fee or not.

Let's see some fee analysis.

The Federal Polytechnic Ede's school fees for the 2020/2021 admission year were as follow:

1. Full-time Students: N36,000.00
2. Daily Part-Time Students: N67,000.00
3. Regular Part-Time Students: N59,350.00

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With the breakdown above, the polytechnic charged #31,000 more for the daily part-time students. This is about 86% increment. Very unreasonable!

The Regular part-time students were charged #23,350 more than the full-time and #7,650 less than the daily part-time. 

That regular was lower than the daily part-time because the former was a 3-year part-time programme compared to the latter which is a 2-year part-time course.

We can deduce from the above that some schools can be so unfriendly with the part-time tuition - truly.

For the same admission year, the Federal University of Oye Ekiti's acceptance fee for part-time students was #30,000, while their full-time students paid #40,000,. That was about a 100% reduction in the acceptance fee in favour of the part-time students.

But for the tuition, the full-time paid about #100,000 and/or above depending on the course offered while the part-time fees are expected to be the same. That's almost a 0% increment. Although in the subsequent years, the full-time candidates may pay nearly half of what the part-time candidates will be required to pay.

This is an example of schools that may be friendly with part-time students about their fees.

This is the usual trend among other universities, polytechnics and colleges of education running both full-time and part-time programmes.

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Paying Higher For a University Part-Time Course May Be Reasonable

You can easily be fooled that the higher fee is cheating. Why will you be paying higher for the same programme and potential certificate?

Let take a few steps back to see the true sense in the part-time programme.

In most cases, the part-time programme will save you from the Almighty JAMB UTME and the subsequent post UTME/Screening. You don't have to worry about obtaining, writing or passing the UTME and post UTME. Relieving yourself of these headaches may be worth it with a part-time course and the attached financial responsibility.

A part-time course (especially the regular one - holding Fridays/Saturdays) is better for you if you're working. It may be your own business or you're working with any company. The programme, on a part-time basis, will give you the flexibility to make money while studying.

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Although this may be possible for some full-time students if they follow my guide in "How to Work/Study as a Full-Time Student in Nigeria". However, it's naturally going to be seamless and flawless for part-time students.

With this arrangement, you can be making money to assist your parents or sponsor yourself if you're a part-time student. Thereby, the fee difference won't take much out of you or your parents.

However, if you're a daily part-time student, you're lucky because you will spend the same years in classes just like the full-time students and spend a little higher. In terms of fees, I believe, it shouldn't drain your parents to the maximum.

Especially if your potential qualification is a degree (BSC), the higher payment for the part-time may very much be worth it. For if you'd gone through polytechnic/college, taking ND and HND consequentially or NCE and BED on a part-time basis, it will cost more.

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The School May Make Payments More Flexible By Allowing Part-Payments

In case you're still afraid the fee is jaw-breaking, you may need to slow down. Most schools will still relieve their students further by allowing the payment of the fees to be made installmentally.

Although this is uncommon to newly admitted candidates (i.e. such an opportunity may not be made available in year one), you may be on the lookout for flexibility in the payment arrangement in the subsequent years.

If your school should allow part payment, expect that to be twice a year. In other words, half of the fee may be paid before the first semester ends while the other half will be paid before the completion of the second semester.

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Conclusion

There is no doubt that the fees for part-time programmes will generally be higher among universities, polytechnics and colleges compared to the fees for full-time students. However, chances are that the difference may be surprisingly small depending on the institutions. And where a school is lenient enough, you may further be encouraged with part-payments.

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