As Ibadan Varsity Resumes, It Needs More Open Engagement With Students As Everyone Understands The Issues It Faces
The Oasis Reporters
September 19, 2024
It must have troubled the management of University of Ibadan a few months back when some figures floated on social media about an increase in fees that would be payable in the 2024/25 academic session.
Being a social medium that attracted varied comments, many students started posting about their intentions to voluntarily withdraw from academic activities. Thereby deferring their courses.
There’s no academic institution that would be happy to meet empty hostels or lecture halls.
This became obvious when the university declared the figures in circulation as having not emanated from them. Yet it was telling when hostel accommodation fees were announced. Nothing was said about the fees, but students were encouraged to just resume and pay the accommodation fees. School fees would be communicated later as consultations were still being held.
In the end, the fees were announced and there seemed to have been some agitations here and there. Due to this, the university ordered a break for three weeks.
Looking at the fees and considering the situation in the economy and the nation, the figures seemed modest because one has to consider the Staff that must receive their emoluments and the running costs of the institution. Especially in the face of declining subventions. Surely nobody wants the university to shut down. They should be at break-even point, even if they are not going to declare profits, so to speak.
A circular that emanated later from the management to students asking them to resume on Friday September 20, 2024 while examinations would commence three days after. And there has be proof of fees having been paid.
The only plea any parent can make is the the school fees payment portal should remain open, and not close by resumption day as reported in the circular. This is because of the situation in the country. Ordinary folks are not finding things very easy.
The next agenda ought to be the reinvention of academic programs in such a way that a bridge is built between academia and industry. There is so much that the university can find itself engaging staff and students in to produce as a way of making the university self-sufficient. Students have been complaining about electricity.
Is there no way that the faculty of engineering can help?
Activities in that direction in many more areas can make University of Ibadan graduates great entrepreneurs and employers of labour when they finish their academic programs.
Greg Abolo
gregabolo@gmail.com
