None of our students will drop out over fee hike — UNILAG VC

The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Lagos (UNILAG), Akoka, Folasade Ogunsola, has assured that no student of the institution- “fresh or returning, will drop out of the university as a result of the increment in fees.”

Speaking at a press briefing Saturday via Zoom, Mrs Ogunsola explained that the increment is inevitable for the sustainability of the university and to continue to deliver quality education.

The students have been protesting the decision of the university to increase the payable fees from N26,000 and about N76,000 to between N120,750 and N240,250 depending on the courses of study and levels.

According to Mrs Ogunsola, the university has an enrollment of about 35,000 postgraduate and undergraduate students and “the cost of running the institution has astronomically gone up as a result of the high inflation in the country, removal of subsidy on petroleum, among other reasons.

However, to ensure students do not drop out of the university, Mrs Ogunsola highlighted that the university will adopt measures such as scholarship opportunities, work-study programmes, and instalment payment options, among others.

Reasons for increment

Mrs Ogunsola noted that the university is “failing on its many obligations”, especially in terms of staff welfare and this is leading to a “tsunami of resignations” by both academic and non-academic workers.

She said the university’s inability to support staff to continuously improve themselves to give back to students has continued to hinder quality service delivery.

“Now we have staff that do not feel the impact of the university. A lot of staff are very upset because they are not being taken care of by the university. They are resigning in droves. This past week, five people resigned and it is a tsunami of resignation here,” she said

Explaining further, the vice-chancellor said despite the government paying the salaries of the university workers, the funds generated in a year could not run the university successfully for a month.

She said as a result of the high inflation in Nigeria, the institution needed to introduce new fees for its sustenance after they had a meeting with the university council and the idea was to look at all the fees and review them.

She said while they get N150m per annum as an overhead cost, the university’s electricity bill is about N1.7 billion per annum apart from other expenses.

She said; “Apart from electricity, we verify results by examination bodies for over N3,000 per student, and we conduct examinations which cost about N80 million per year. Each of the faculty incurs another N3.5 million. So for examinations alone, we do roughly N140 million annually.

“62 million is paid for the accreditation of our programmes every year. The student payment doesn’t even cover our electricity bill.”

Measures to ease payment

According to the vice-chancellor, the measures to ease the payment of fees include an instalment payment option, scholarship, revitalisation of a work-study programme, assistance to indigent students, and partnership with Lagos Bus Rapid Transport System.

The university said: “The fee payment system has been re-configured to allow the installment payment option: three times before the closure of the academic year.

“Students have the opportunity to access various scholarship opportunities including the UNILAG Scholars Award for exceptionally brilliant students, through the office of the Dean, Student Affairs Division.”

The university noted that another measure is the “Triple A Project” put in place for alumni and well-meaning Nigerians to adopt a student, adding that the university has deployed the “Pay for Mentors Project” for smart students.

“Through this project, exceptionally brilliant students selected as mentors for other students will get adequate remuneration,” it said.

To facilitate ease of transportation, the university management also said it has secured approval from Lagos State for an additional BRT dedicated route for persons who come from the Berger Bus Stop axis of Lagos State, while they are in discussions to have other routes such as Oshodi and Iyana Ipaja included.

Students threaten another protest

Meanwhile, the leadership of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) on Friday gave the university a 48-hour ultimatum to reverse the increased school fees.

One of the leaders of the union- Ekundina Elvis, called on the university to reverse the fees as earlier agreed on 2 August in a meeting with the joint body of students and management staff of the university.

The student threatened to hit “the UNILAG gates again”, acknowledging the directive of the federal government asking authorities of tertiary institutions to halt fee increments.

The statement read in parts: “However, we insist that the federal government must go beyond this lip service and address the challenge of underfunding of education.

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“The introduction of the Students Loan Act and the insignificant budgetary allocation to education is a great indictment and casts great aspersion on the government’s resolve to confront the deteriorating state of our institutions.”

The student also decried the police involvement in its protest on Wednesday.

PulseNets reported how two students, identified as Femi Adeyeye, and Philip Olatinwo, were arrested by the police during the protest.

NANS said: “We want to state that the repression that was meted out on our protest yesterday in what we best term an ‘absurd’ astronomical increase in fees payable at the University of Lagos is condemnable and the height of recklessness on the part of the Police Force.

“Going as far as dispersing a peaceful gathering of students against the absurdity is in itself an absurdity and, as an association, we condemn it in clear terms.”