Thirty-one-year old Ekiti State University, EKSU, Ado-Ekiti, is a
university with a difference, especially in the aspect of students’
attitude to payment of school fees.
The erstwhile culture at inception in the university, which took off
as Obafemi Awolowo University and later Ondo State University before
adopting University of Ado Ekiti and its present EKSU, was that students
paid their tuition fees immediately on resumption for a new academic
session, But that has become history as the culture had undergone
degeneration over time from payment as at when due to when the students
felt it was convenient for them and consequently not paying at all.
There were cases of students, who gained admission to the university,
spent four sessions, graduated and went for the National Youth Service
Corps (NYSC) scheme without paying a dime to the coffers of the
university.
According to sources in the university bursary, many full-time and part-time students hate payment of school fees with passion.
As a matter of fact, many graduates paid for only one or two sessions
and succeeded in getting necessary examination and clearance papers
through the back door.
One of the participants at a stakeholders’ forum involving the
principal officers of the university, staff, parents, sponsors and
guardians held at the university on Saturday, who described himself as a
parent, painted a clearer picture when he said he was amazed that a
person celebrated his passing through EKSU without paying a kobo for
four sessions.
The question is how such students got their way through the
university? Sources said they colluded with some members of staff in
relevant quarters for enabling papers to deceive the authorities that
they had paid.
This is one of the issues that the current Vice- Chancellor of the
institution, Prof. Patrick Aina, who assumed office one and half years
ago, has to contend with as efforts to effect change appears to be
meeting with resistance from the students, who appear to have preference
for maintaining the status quo.
Aina, who said students owed over N2 billion tuition fees when he
assumed office, vowed that his administration would ensure that EKSU was
run in line with what obtained elsewhere in a bid to reposition the
institution as a world-class university.
Consequently, he pressured the students to ensure their tuition fees
for 2011/2012 session were paid before partaking in the second semester
examination, asking them to bring a regulated clearance – a situation
which saw some students having to pay tuition fees arrears.
The VC, who vowed that it would no longer be business as usual
stressed that students had to pay their 2012/2013 tuition fees latest
two weeks after resumption for the new academic session.
However, on resumption, the students chose to follow their own old
ways by refusing to pay the school fees and taking the path of protest
when the university authorities decided to apply “no school fees, no
lecture policy” to compel them to pay.
As the protest, whereby the students locked the university gates to
prevent entry into the campus, entered its second day on May 3, the
authorities of the university announced a mid-semester break for the
students “to enable them have time to pay up the tuition”.
The university later announced that its gates would not be opened to
the students until at least 80 per cent of them had paid up. The vice
chancellor said: “As of Wednesday, May 2, 2013 (five weeks into the
current session), out of the 14,802 students in the regular programmes,
only 1,227 students had paid their fees.
There are 124 students in the College of Medicine, only two had paid their fees. This is alarming in a College of Medicine.”
But the students, who were said to have gathered for the showdown as
early as 5.30am chanted war songs against Ekiti State Governor Kayode
Fayemi and the school management and, as well made bonfire outside the
locked gates of the institution.
Some students, who spoke with journalists had accused the university
of insincerity over the ‘no fee no lecture’ stance, saying their fees
were too high as students in some departments were being made to pay as
high as N150,000 through various charges as against the N50,000 school
fees being announced.
The students, who said the authorities should allow them to attend
classes while they pay the school fees later by installment, challenged
the university to disclose to the world the sundry fees they were being
made to pay in addition, thus making their fees outrageous.
The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), coming to the
aid of its members at EKSU, said it had held an exhaustive deliberation
with the university management so that students could be allowed to pay
bit by bit.
A statement by NANS National President, Comrade Yinka Gbadebo, said
its position was informed by the fact that such would make life easier
for the indigent ones among the students as they would not suffer being
locked out of lectures.
But Aina said: “Payment of fees is a condition of studentship. That
is the standard now in the university,” saying: “We will not encourage
that situation whereby students do not pay school fees to continue.”
The VC clarified at the stakeholders’ forum that the university
needed to look inwards to meet its financial commitments, saying: “The
most credible source of generating fund is through tuition fees, which
at the moment stand at N50, 000 flat rate”
According to Aina, who reeled out the approved tuition and service
charges for undergraduates to the stakeholders, tuition is N50, 000
while other charges included payment for health services, registration,
ICT, laboratory, field trip, identity cards, among others.
He described the fees as moderate and considerate, particularly when
compared with what obtained in other sister universities like Lagos
State University, Osun State University and Olabisi Onabanjo University,
which he showed their school fees schedules.
Aina, who said the students were deliberately refusing to pay
approved fees, said “they would rather deploy their fees already
collected from their parents to other uses like purchase of state- of-
the- art gadgets, phones and other mundane activities that are not
beneficial to them as students.”
