Students threaten to shut down OAU over increment in tuition fees

Students of the Obafemi-Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State have threatened to shut down activities in the institution after the school announced a 300 per cent increment in tuition fees.

The Public Relations Officer of the institution, Abiodun Olarewaju said the increment was agreed upon after an emergency management meeting last week.

The Students Union Government, SUG, led by its President, Abbas Akinremi-Ojo on Monday during a press conference said the students would take action if the OAU management failed to revert its decision.

Kicking against the action, Ojo said, “We’ve also written to all respective banks to halt the acceptance of fee payments from any student until a better resolution has been achieved.

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“As much as we don’t want to, we are currently running out of options and might have to shut down all activities on campus and progressively on all other federal institutions campuses in Nigeria because we are carrying the leadership of the National Association of Nigeria Students (NANS) along.

“The student leadership had met with the management in August when we learnt about plans to increase school fees and we started negotiating.

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“Unfortunately, they shut us out and announced the new fee. They claimed that the Federal Government has stopped funding OAU; meanwhile, the recent release on September 15th, 2023 listed OAU as number 9 of the top-funded universities with a budget allocation of N13.4B.”

Similarly, the National Association of Universities Students, NANS, through its Chairman, Olayinka Popoola in Osogbo has warned other universities planning to increase fees.

In his words, “universities must source funds elsewhere to meet their needs.”