Parents livid as UI VC says fee hike is inevitable

Parents whose children are students of the University of Ibadan have expressed displeasure at the decision of the management to increase tuition and accommodation fees.

At a meeting which involved parents and the management of the university on Tuesday, Idowu Olayinka, vice chancellor of the university, said the increase was inevitable.

The university had increased accommodation fees from N14,000 to N30,000 for students on campus and N40,000 for medical students residing in Alexander Brown Hall.

The VC said there were only 8,222 bed spaces available for the 27,000 student population.

“Accommodation is provided for freshers and final year students only. By implication, the university is not obligated to provide accommodation for 200 level and 300 level students, except where there are few spaces left to accommodate students on clinical, and special needs grounds,” he said.

“There has been a 122.5 percent increase in tariff over the past six years. Whenever there is power outage from the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company, power is generated from our diesel power generators. On the average, we spend N10m to purchase diesel and engine oil per month.

“The university has been subsidising the utility bills for electricity, water, general and environmental cleaning from other sources which, unfortunately, are no longer in existence.”

He also explained that medical students were asked to pay N40,000 because the duration of their session was 12 months while other students spend nine months for a session.

Olayinka also said the newly-introduced N100,000 laboratory and professional fees were unavoidable because of the university’s quest to produce quality graduates.

NAN reports that majority of parents said they are not objecting to an increment due to the current economic realities, the proposal by the institution is unacceptable.