EXCLUSIVE: Crisis At University Of Calabar As VC Sends Home Many Students Including Finalists After School Admitted More Than Quota

SaharaReporters gathered that the Vice Chancellor took the decision during a meeting with the students and their parents on Thursday.

Confusion has erupted at the University of Calabar (UNICAL) after the Vice Chancellor, Prof Florence Banku Obi, sent hundreds of students in the Faculty of Dentistry and Dental Surgery home due to over-admission beyond the approved quota by the Nigerian Medical and Dental Council. 

SaharaReporters gathered that the Vice Chancellor took the decision during a meeting with the students and their parents on Thursday.

A memo from the office of the Provost College of Medical Sciences University of Calabar., with Ref: UC/CMS/PO/209 to all Dental Students dated 7th July, 2025, invited all the students and their parents to a meeting with the Vice Chancellor on July 10 at the College meeting hall.

Although the agenda of the meeting was not stated, the memo copied to principal officers of the College was signed by Deputy Registrar/College Secretory, Mrs. Anita B. Eyo.

The letter which was tilted: “Notice of Meeting with the Vice – Chancellor,” partly read: “I am directed to invite all the Dental Students and their parents to a meeting with the Vice-Chancellor, University of Calabar as scheduled, – Thursday, 10th July, 2025, time 2:00 PM.”

After the meeting, the students from 200 to 600 levels were asked to go home with their parents until the university sorts out over-admission of students into the faculty, SaharaReporters was told. 

One of the affected students lamented that the students were asked to go home despite paying millions in tuition fees, accommodations, and other charges. 

“There’s a huge injustice going on in the University of Calabar Faculty of Dentistry and Dental Surgery,” he said.

According to him, the university admitted more students than the quota given by the Medical Council of Nigeria, and now all students from 200 to 600 levels have been told to go home. 

“The school out of greed admitted a lot of students in that faculty as against the quota given to them by the Medical Council of Nigeria,” he alleged.

The students are said to be helpless, and the Vice Chancellor has banned any form of protest against her drastic and inhumane decision. 

Another student questioned why the university would admit over 300 students in a class when the quota is just 10 graduate dentists per year.

She collaborated her colleague, stating that what happened in the university is a huge injustice.

She said: “The school out of greed admitted a lot of students in that faculty as against the quota given to them. Now they have asked the students to go home when they cannot maneuver their fraudulent admission. All these students have been paying school fees, house rent, textbook fees, feeding. 

“And just today the the Vice Chancellor called all the students in the faculty of Dentistry with their parents in a meeting and the matter that was raised is that the over-admission.”

The development has sparked outrage among students, who are demanding justice and a reversal of the decision. 

The situation remains tense, with the students awaiting a resolution to the crisis.