By Ayomide Ogunsakin
Students of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) have expressed their fears and reactions flowing from the recent news of school fees to be paid by students at the University of Lagos (UNILAG).
UNILAG’s school fees have reportedly leaped from a range between ₦19,000-26,000, to a whopping ₦190,250 for Medical students, and ₦140,250 for students studying courses that require laboratory and studio use.
Seeing as UNILAG is a Federal University, other Federal Universities, specifically OAU, have been quite bothered and what their own fees will look like.
Despite the Federal government’s repudiation of stories of increase in school fees, particularly tuition, anxiety continues to mount with students and their parents. Government spokesman, Dele Alake had insisted that tuition is free in all Federal Government tertiary institutions, saying that the increase witnessed in some institutions bothers on accommodation, and other sundry fees.
Below are reactions of some OAU students on social media:
_”UNILAG has increased their school fees. Now we await Great Ife so brace yourselves.”_
_”Now that OAU is also likely to announce between 80k-120k plus and it’ll be confirmed soon, what do we do?”_
_”Some of us may need to take student loans.”_
_”And what happens if you can’t pay back afterwards? You go to jail?”_
_”That is if you would even be able to collect the loan in the first place. Because who would want to stand in as a guarantor for you to get the loan in this economy?”_
_”A lot of students may be forced to dropout.”_
_”Even with how low the current fees are, there are still some students who can’t afford to pay for themselves and are forced to either borrow or crowd fund to pay their fees. What are students like that supposed to do now?”_
_”The Students’ Union leadership will definitely have to do something about it. We may have to protest against the increase because we can’t just accept it like that. It would be unfair for tuition fees in a Federal university which ought to be subsidized by the Government to make education more easily accessible, to just increase by over 100% without any warning.”_
_”Why did people even vote this Tinubu man into power? Now we’re all suffering the effects of that decision on so many levels. Fuel increase, Food items are far more expensive, now school fees are about to skyrocket and salaries still stay stagnant. It’s all just really sad.”_
Some other students have however expressed a different view on the matter, seeing the increase as a necessity for the educational system in Nigeria to thrive and become better:
_”Although the new fees would be a lot more expensive, we must also understand that is ridiculous to pay cheap fees and expect a high standard of the education you get, or even proper infrastructure. A University education is not supposed to come cheaply. It is an investment into your future and the education you get is ideally supposed to shape your view of the world. So you can’t put in little financial efforts and expect that you would get the best. It is because of this silly mindset that so many students study courses in the university that they don’t need, fail to put in the required efforts, and end up with useless certificates.”_
The OAU Senate Body also reportedly held a meeting yesterday, 26th of July, to discuss issues concerning the school and especially to determine what the new school fees would be. Thus, OAU students are still awaiting the outcome of the meeting to know whether their fees would also be increased, and how much higher such increase would be.
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