The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), has warned the authorities of the University of Ibadan (UI) and the Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko (AAUA) to reverse the recently increased tuition or face the full wrath of the law.
In a statement released by SERAP, Timothy Adewale, the Deputy Director revealed this on Thursday, describing the situation as “illegal”.
UI increased fees for students’ professional training and accommodation, while AAUA increased school fees.
The professional fees at UI now range from N75,000 to N100, 000 per student, while accommodation fee in the hostel was raised from N14,000 to N40,000 per student.
AAUA increased tuition fee from N30,000 to between N120,000 and N200,000 per session.
The NGO said the hike would increase the rate of dropouts in the country.
“Students that are unable to pay these fees may become disillusioned, gradually dissociate from the universities and eventually drop out.
“The universities 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 seven days of the publication of this statement, SERAP would take appropriate legal action to compel them to do so.’’
According to SERAP, the dramatic increases will have the discrimination effect on disadvantaged students, who may be unable to afford the new fees.
“They are not granted an exemption, thereby creating a classification based on the economic and social status of their parents.
“The increases will also undermine the students’ rights to education and equal protection guarantees.’’
“When a student is excluded from gaining the full benefits available in public school because of inability to pay fees, the effect is exclusion, which naturally imposes a lifetime hardship on a discrete class of students.’’
“Increasing fees because the governments are not adequately funding the two institutions amount to victimising the students over an issue they have neither control nor responsibility,” Adewale stated.
