Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has urged the authorities of the University of Ibadan and Adekunle Ajasin University to “immediately reverse the patently illegal increases in fees.”
It says the fees “would stigmatize students that may be unable to pay, lead to a filtering out of such students and foreclose any realistic possibility that they will contribute in even the smallest way to the progress of our country.”
SERAP says the school ought to have carefully considered the effects of high fees on accessibility and the vision of education that they seek to achieve.
“The universities are advised to find solutions to their funding difficulties elsewhere. But if they fail to reverse these fees within 7 days of the publication of this statement, SERAP would take appropriate legal action to compel them to do so.”
While the University of Ibadan increased fees for students’ professional training and accommodation, Adekunle Ajasin University increased school fees.
The professional fees range from N75,000 to N100,000 per student, while accommodation fee in the hostel was raised from around N14,000 to N40,000 per student.
AAUA increased school fees from about N35,000 to as high as between N120,000 and N200,000 per session.
SERAP deputy director Timothy Adewale said in a statement,“The inability of the students or their parents to pay these fees would result in an absolute deprivation of a meaningful opportunity for the students to enjoy educational benefit. Increasing fees because the authorities are not adequately funding the two institutions is victimising the students over an issue they have neither control nor responsibility.”
