Condemnations, outrage over increment of acceptance fee to N50, 000 in UI

Condemnations have continued to trail the recent increment of acceptance fee at the University of Ibadan to N50,000.

news collators reports that parents and various groups within and outside the university community have continued to condemn the university’s management over the increment.

The acceptance fee for new students was increased from N37,000 to N50,000.

Some of the parents who spoke with news collators described the increment as another way to deprive the children of the poor access to university education.

Others are of the opinion that the acceptance fee is illegal.

A parent, Mr. Adeolu Babalola maintained that many parents were still looking for a way to get the N37,000 old acceptance fee when the news of the increment was broken.

“It is a way to deprive the children of the poor access to university education. It is so unfortunate. People are still looking for a way to get N37,000 when they said they have increased it to N50,000.

“It is not good at all. We want the management to rescind the decision”.

Another parent, Mrs. Kolawole told news collators that the introduction of acceptance fee was illegal.

“It is quite unfortunate that a university owned by the federal government is collecting acceptance fee. Why?

“During our own time, there is nothing like an acceptance fee. This one is too outrageous. N50,000 is enough for someone to complete a university degree if the system is working. We want the management to look into this and rescind the decision.”

Another parent, Mr. Jonathan Bamidele in his own contribution explained that such increment may increase the number of out of school children.

He said, “The implication is that people will say that university education is too expensive. Then many people will refuse to go to school again thereby increasing the number of out of school children in the country.

“This is a public university that is supposed to charge less than any other university in the country. UI is known for the best but they got it wrong in this aspect.

“It is the property of Nigeria, the federal government. Now that this university is charging this amount for only the acceptance fee, what will happen in other universities like private or state universities?”

Abide by NUC directive, stop collection of acceptance fee- Group tells management

Meanwhile, a group, Concerned Students’ Against Tuition Fees movement has advised the university of Ibadan management to abide by the directive of the National Universities Commission (NUC) and stop the collection of acceptance fee.

The group noted that the NUC had earlier urged universities to stop collection of acceptance fee across the country.

CSATF Coordinator, Aduwo Ayodele and the Secretary, Kareem Abdullahi in a statement made available to news collators noted that the group finds it imperative to unequivocally oppose the decision to charge prospective students.

The group added that it recognized that education is a fundamental human right and should be made free and accessible to all.

“We, of the Concerned Students’ Against Tuition Fees movement, find it imperative to unequivocally oppose the decision to charge prospective students into the University of Ibadan, as well as the determined act to hike the same fee from N37,500 to N50,000. As a concerned movement, we are opposed to the commercialization of education in the many forms it may appear.

“We strongly recognize that education is a fundamental human right and should be made free and accessible to all. Against this backdrop, we at CSATF vehemently condemn acceptance fee charges, now up to the sum of N50,000, on the prospective students who are currently in the final stage of their admission processing at the University of Ibadan.

“We consider the payment of acceptance fee arbitrary simply because it is not a payment for any known service rendered by the University to the prospective students. We, at CSATF, believe that since these intending students have been made to go through the rigorous process of writing three different examinations, including the Senior Secondary Certificate Examinations (SSCE), University Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), and ultimately the Post-UTME examinations, all in a bid to willfully secure and merit admissions into the University, it is therefore nothing short of injustice that these prospective students are levied with a fee for which they have not received any actual service.

“Given the deepening economic crisis, we at CSATF consider the fee as ever more unjust considering that all Universities received a directive from the National Universities Commission (NUC) to stop the collection of acceptance fees from prospective students. As confirmed by the National Universities Commission’s (NUC) Executive Secretary, Professor Abubakar Adamu Rasheed, on 13th February 2020, in an interview with the NTA’s Platform, a part of the statement reads, ‘we (NUC) have received a communication from the Senate and from the National Assembly and we have communicated to all Universities in the country to stop charging acceptance fee henceforth’.

“It is disturbing that three years after the issuance of such a directive, acceptance fees are still being collected by Universities and even more disconcerting is its increase from N37,500 in the previous year, to N50, 000 as in the case of the University of Ibadan, a fee which is way above the minimum wage in Nigeria. We can only consider this an attempt to commercialise education and make it the exclusive reserve of the haves.

“We therefore call on the administrators of the University of Ibadan to abide by the directive from the National Universities Commission and to stop the collection of acceptance fees in the University.

“We also seize this opportunity to reiterate that education is a right and should be made free and accessible to all by the Government. We call on the leadership of the Staff Unions at the University of Ibadan and across Nigeria to increase pressure on all the public Universities and on Government across all levels to stop the collection of the imposed fee.

“We recognise the fact that the prompt for the collection of acceptance fee may be connected with the problems of underfunding bedevilling Nigerian universities. Despite this, we hold that the imposition of the acceptance fee and other unjust fees on students is tantamount to levying students and their parents to pay for the failure of successive governments, all who have refused to adequately fund public education, including universities.”

It is compulsory for all new students- Registrar

However, the management of the university has said that all candidates who have been offered admission are to pay the fee.

The institution made this disclosure via a statement signed by its Registrar, G.O. Saliu.

The Registrar added that all candidates that have been offered admission are to pay the fee.

“Candidates who have been offered provisional admission and have generated their admission letters on CAPS are hereby advised to proceed with the payment of a non-refundable Acceptance Fee of Fifty Thousand Hundred naira (N50,000.00) only on www.admissions.ui.edu.ng.

“Candidates who are yet to generate their admission letters are advised to do so before payment of the fee. Request for a refund of the acceptance fee will not be entertained.

“Candidates are to upload the following documents alongside the payment of the fee:

“An Institution’s copy of the Admission Letter, O/L result(s), PIN/SERIAL Numbers of WAEC/NECO scratch card for O’L results.

“The admission portal will open on Monday, 15 May to Friday, 23 June, 2023. Please note that there will be no extension of the deadline”.