OAU students protest tuition fees hike

Students of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Osun State, have staged a protest at the University campus gate on Tuesday over the recent hike in students’ school fees, demanding for at least a 50% reduction in the new charges.

The students barricaded the campus gate of the University in the early hours of the day to prevent coming in and going out of workers in order to ensure the management felt their grievances. Students, staff, and other stakeholders of the university were seen stranded at the campus gate Tuesday morning.

Recall that Tribune Online reports that management increased tuition fees by over 300 percent for both fresh and returning students of the university.

Meanwhile, the students’ resulted to protest following a congress held by the Students’ Union at the TV Room, Ken Saro Wiwa Students’ Union Building, on Monday . 

The students at the campus gate, who were seen holding placards with different inscriptions  like; “Let the Poor Breathe”, #FeeMustFall, “You paid 9k, You want Students to pay 90k”, amongst others, demanded a 50% reduction in the original proposed new charges and also the installment payment which was promised by the Vice Chancellor of the University as a result of the hike.

The Vice-Chancellor, who was represented by the University’s ICT Director, while answering to the demands of the students on Installment Payment, said the ICT centre of the school has a low number of staff at the moment due to the current ‘Japa’ wave going round the country, as this have caused the process of the recently concluded Post UTME examination to be slow, therefore leading to a slow process of activating the installment payment on the portal. 

He assured the students that the activation of installment payment will be made before the end of the day.

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