Governing Council of Ladoke Akinola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, has approved the increment in tuition fees of students of the university from 100 Level to 400 Level.

This was contained in a statement signed by Secretary of the Council, Mr J. A Agboola.

According to the release, the decision was reached at 133rd governing council meeting held on Thursday, July 5.

The council decided that the hike will take effect from 2018 / 2019 academic session.

Medical, Nursing and Biomedical students have been billed to start paying N300,000, Engineering student billed for N250,000 and students of the Faculties of Agricultural Sciences, Basic Medical Sciences, Environmental Sciences and Applied Sciences will pay N200,000.

The new fee is against the N63,500 for indigenes and N72,500 for non-indigenes returning students.

The present 100 level students paid N120,000 for indigenes and N150,000 for non-indigenes as part of the resolution of the institution after the university strike that lasted for months.

When contacted, Public Relations Officer of the university, Mr Lekan Fadeyi, did not deny nor affirm the approval of new fee payment. Rather, he told our reporter to reach out to the council.

Meanwhile, a top official of the university, who spoke under condition of anonymity, told our correspondent in a telephone interview he has been earlier briefed about the decision of the council.

“I also saw the release this morning. Although, the VC earlier said the issue was raised at the governing council meeting”, he said.

Meanwhile, several reactions have followed the development from students as they tagged the decision of the university as an “illicit act”.

“The truth is that more than 70 per cent of the students can’t afford it and the other 30 per cent will struggle to pay it. The ones, whose parents are staff of the institution aren’t left out either,” a female student who asked not to be mentioned because of fear of victimisation said.

Another student, Kazeem Alli, said the university “is calling for another strike”.

“The university is only calling for crises again because students will protest this inhuman policy. We’ve heard about this earlier and we are ready to combat it,” he said.

PT