FUOYE Admits Law Students, Reactions Arise Over N75,000 Acceptance Fees

The Federal University Oye-Ekiti has introduced the Faculty of Law in addition to her seven other faculties. The faculty will start in the 2019/2020 session.

The school portal states that students admitted into the Faculty of Law can proceed with payment of acceptance fees. The payment of acceptance fees will close on the 19th of March and it costs Seventy-five Thousand Naira (N75,000).

The school has also reopened the portal for fresh students’ registration, which had closed on the 7th of the month. The registration deadline has been extended to the 18th of March.

Fresh students of the seven existing faculties in the 2019/2020 session were required to pay N50,000 as acceptance fees. Law students are, however, required to pay N75,000 inciting reactions from several quarters.

Deborah, a 400 Level student of the Department of English and Literary Studies said: “Let us be sincere, it is the same everywhere. We cannot compare ourselves with other universities that have existed before us. Let us use EKSU as an example. Law students there pay N107,000 as acceptance fees even though other students pay just N57,000. In OAU too, I think Law and Medical students pay more.”

Iyanuoluwa, a 200 Level student of the Mathematics Department said: “The money is too much. The school should understand that all fingers are not equal. Is it that people whose parents don’t have money cannot study law? The school should just try to help the students by reducing the fees.”

Speaking with UCJ FUOYE, the acting President of the Students’ Union Government, Anifowose Temitope said: “We are actually working with NANS (National Association of Nigerian Students) to put an end to this because it is the highest level of extortion.”

NANS South-West Reacts

The South-West region of the National Association of Nigerian Students has reacted to the increase in acceptance fees. In a memo released on the 12th of March and signed by the coordinator, Kowe Odunayo Amos, the association decried the increase in acceptance fees. The memo stated that the management of the institution has turned “deaf ears” towards making education affordable for everyone in the institution.

A section reads: “On a proper note, we call on the management of Federal University, Oye-Ekiti to as a matter of exigency refund the acceptance fee of those that must have paid this strange and exorbitant fee within the next 48hrs. Failure to adhere to this shall be met with strict resistance. We maintain that education must be made affordable and accessible.”

Management Reacts

In an exclusive interview with the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Kayode Soremekun, he said: “The little money we have is going into a lot of things. We have accreditation in the Faculty of Agriculture by November and we must start work now. They gave a huge bill. How can we afford that? We are now trying to upgrade the makeshift classrooms. We have been given a bill for drugs in the health centre. Theatre Arts have accreditation. We want to start a Distant Learning program. That one will cost millions of naira. We are trying to put all theses and journals on the portal for easy access and that will also cost a lot. We have been given a bill for consumables.

I hope you know the road (school gate to phase two) has started peeling off. When we questioned the contractor, he told us that by the time the money got to him half of it was already gone. For those who were here since 2016, you know there was a stream that made phase three inaccessible. We used some millions of naira to burst the stream and we put culvert. We are now trying to make sure that we put asphalt from here (phase two to pharmacy). Very soon, we will have a running Faculty of Pharmacy. How will students get there? If the rain meets us while we are at it, phase three will be totally inaccessible. We have already spent millions and the contractor is asking for more money to put asphalt and extend it to Theatre Arts. The government is yet to release a Kobo and work must be done.”

Dr Malomo, the Dean of Students’ Affairs, also said: “You know the old generation universities generate a lot of money from IGR. They are not like new ones now that survive exclusively on school fees.”

IGR means Internally Generated Revenue. The scheme serves to fund the university system apart from the grants received from the Federal government.

The Director of Corporate Affairs, Mr Ademuyiwa, said: “Yes, there may be some increase in fees relative to your (students) expectations. However, there are some reasons for the increase. The fees template regime that informed low fees in older universities has vanished. Even those older universities are planning increases because of the coming of state and private varsities. The gap between what private universities charges and what Federal universities charges will continue to close until there is equilibrium. If anybody wants to help the poor like NANS is pretending to do, they should tell the government to put a limit to exorbitant fees of private universities.”