OAU students reject tuition fee review, insist on 50 percent reduction

From Lateef Dada, Osogbo

Students of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Osun State, on Tuesday, barricaded entrances to the campus to demand a 50 percent reduction of the new tuition fee announced by the management.

In the review done by the management of the university, returning students in Humanities who were initially asked to pay N89,200, were reduced to N76,000 while the new students’ fee was reduced to N131,000 from the initial N151,200.

“For those in the Sciences and Technology, the initial charges of N101,200, for returning students is now N86,000 while the new students in the same Faculties will now pay N141,000 instead of the initial N163,200.

“In the same vein, the returning students in the Pharmacy and College of Health Sciences will now pay N109,000, instead of N128,200. The new students in the same Faculties will now pay N164,000 instead of the initial charges of N190,000,” the management said.

However, the students said the review was contrary to their demand for a 50 percent reduction and threatened to continue the protest until the fees were reversed.

The president of the student union, Abass Ojo, explained that the review of the tuition fee by the management was in contravention of the demands of the students.

He said the student union had demanded a fifty percent reduction from the school management and failure to accede to their demand propelled the protest.

“We met with the school management last week Monday and after stating our demands, it was stated that we can only achieve a 15 percent reduction which is far beyond what we demanded.

“At the moment right now, the generality of Great Ife students are out here to protest and show their dissatisfaction and displeasure on this school fees increment because it isn’t affordable for anybody provided that aside from the school fees, the accommodation has also gone up and there is an N100,000 professional levied that has been mandated or imposed on the student of college of Health sciences and pharmacy.

“We have declared this protest and it will continue until the management is ready to engage us or the federal government is ready to come in to assist the school management in giving them the necessary funds that are required to run the school system,” Ojo said.

However, the Public Relations Officer of the university, Abiodun Olarewaju, commended the peaceful conduct of the students, saying the economic realities necessitated the increment in tuition fees.

He said, fortunately, we decided to reduce the initial chargeable fees when the leadership of their union persistently demanded re-negotiation. We considered and we held meetings with them and we told them the 50 percent you are asking for will not be realistic in the long run,” Olarewaju said.