Parents and students are expressing outrage over the demands for miscellaneous fees by tertiary institutions in the country, some of which they describe as appalling.
They view such extra charges as a way of collecting tuition fee through the back door, even when the government says tuition is free.
For instance, at the Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ndufu-Alike in Ebonyi State, parents are angry with the mandatory demand of N50,000 as Parent Forum Fee for new students.
“This is different from the N41,000 collected as Acceptance Fee. They want to be clever by half by charging what they called Student Charges of N75,000. To me, I think that is a subtle way of saying pay tuition fee because I cannot understand what Student Charges stands for. They also demanded N6,500 as Internet Charges when it is not them that are providing data for the students to work with and not that the school has a WiFi that students can use anytime,” an aggrieved parent, who identified himself simply as Peter said.
He said his son studying Agriculture told him that some departments charge far more than that.
“They also demand N5,000 as X Ray charges. I would not know whether they are taking the X Ray of each student. They also ask for N3,000 as Student Health Insurance. Let us assume that the students must be insured, are they going to make the papers and agreement available to the students and their parents and do the needful if any eventuality happens? He asked.
Similarly, a father, whose son just graduated from the Lagos State University of Education, Ijanikin, Lagos wondered why each graduating student is asked to pay about N105,000 as clearance fee.
“When we went to school, when you are graduating, you only needed to take clearance form to places like the Library, Health Centre and a few other places to ensure that you are not going with school properties such as books. Even the introduction of Acceptance Fee is an anomaly. During our time, nothing of such happened. Schools would even advertise the names of admitted students in the dailies at their own expense, “ a parent, Kehinde said. He opined that school authorities are only collecting tuition fees through the back door.
A student of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomosho, Oyo State, Taiwo, said he sometimes feels ashamed to tell his parents about some ridiculous payments being demanded from students.
According to him, a fresh student could pay up to N400,000 when all sundry charges are added up, not minding the economic condition in the country.
A staff of the Federal Ministry of Education, who craved anonymity, said the running of universities has been left with their managements and Governing Councils and that the government does not interfere in such matters.
