The Nation Newspaper

Tag: LASU

  • Foundation’s $10,000 for LASU’s best

    The Oba Adeniji Adele Foundation is set to unfold a scholar grant, an intervention of not less than $10,000 that will be given annually to the Best Graduating Student of the Lagos State University (LASU) to pursue a post graduate course in any institution of the beneficiary’s choice.

    The announcement was made during a briefing in Lagos to unfold the grant in commemoration of the 50th remembrance anniversary of the of Lagos monarch Oba Adeniji Adele. Oba Musendiq Adeniji-Adele was the 19th monarch of Lagos who reigned between  1949 to July 1964.

    Daughter to the late monarch Princess Kudirat Adele-Sanyaolu, who spoke in Lagos described the grant as epochal and reflective of the person of Oba Adele who in his lifetime was a disciplinarian and visionary traditional ruler, and whose works and deeds cherished the pursuit of academic excellence. Adele-Sanyaolu said her father did everything to propagate the gospel of well rounded education not only within his family but also in the larger Lagos Isale Eko community.

    She said the grant will be launched on Saturday July 12th of July and be managed by the foundation.

    The general secretary of the foundation, Prince Sanmi Babatunde Adele, said the grant is to encourage students who are performing well and inspires others towards attaining excellence.

  • LASU: Still a season of unreason?

    LASU: Still a season of unreason?

    It is likely that many Lagosians would be the disappointed by Lagos State University (LASU) students’ flat rejection of the60 per cent slash in school fees offered by the state government last week.  First, the students would make clear their suspicions of an offer they consider as laden with technicalese: “We do not accept the percentage reduction offered by the government because in 2011 when the fees were increased, it was not done on percentage level; rather, they made the pronouncement in Nigerian naira and kobo. Secondly, they would equally make clear: anything short of 67 per cent across board slash in the fees would be unaceptable.

    Now, if you consider government’s offer of 60 percent and the students counter-offer of 67,  I think we can begin to talk of some progress. It’s hard to see the seven percent holding the system down any further. Way back in November 2011 when the animosisties over the new fees first broke, it was a case of emotions simply running riot – a measure of how fixated many of us had become on the old paradigm with its deep roots in entitlement. For many, the quantum 275 percent increase was not just insensitive but primed to make university education elitist. Couldn’t imagine a more winning argument!

    Here is how I saw it then.  Very little appears to have changed.

    “Trust reason to take flight where emotions rule, discussions on the attempts by LASU and by extension the Lagos State government to make the beneficiaries of its tertiary education system come to terms with current realities of funding is now akin to sacrilege. In other words, we are not supposed to explore new paradigms outside of the existing framework that has reduced the university idea to the current ignoble level!

    Now, I appreciate all the fancy arguments about the new regime of fees at LASU being steep. That seems fine by me except that the argument is responsible for feeding some of the myths that have brought education, particularly at the tertiary level, to this sorry pass.

    Let me start by saying that I do not claim to know how the authorities in LASU came by the current figures – said to be a 275 percent jump over the previous fees. It seems to me however that a more productive argument is to actually establish what the per capita cost of training a student is. I say this because, without that parameter being established in the first place, the idea of building some fancy models on some opaque statistics seems at best an illiterate way of presenting an argument.

    This is where, I think, both parties have clearly missed it. My view is that you do not say a commodity is overpriced until input costs are not known! I love the idea of our universities aspiring to be world class –with excellent research and teaching facilities. The much that I know is that world class institutions require world class funding!  Part of the problem – in my view – is this tradition of romanticising the golden past of our university system even when the imperative of change looms so large on the horizon! Isn’t it about time we sat down to address the problem of university funding once and for all?

    Now, where do I stand on the LASU fees imbroglio? Simple. Let’s have the figures. Thereafter, we can go to debate who bears what portion of the burden. Having said that, the point remains that it is hard to fault the principles of redistributing the burden of getting the university going which is what the new LASU regime of fees is all about. Those principles are beyond question, sound and pragmatic. While it may sound satanic to some, I call it practical economics!

    The alternatives? Science laboratories without reagents; ill-equipped libraries; overcrowded lecture rooms and hostels that qualify to be described as pig sties – translating into what I describe as the slow lynching of the university idea!

    I haven’t said anything about government shirking its responsibilities in the area of funding…But the greater crime is the culture of denial of the responsibility to make the desired changes particularly when it calls for sacrifices on the part of the recipients of tertiary education.

    If I may put it in a simpler way – it is time to set the boundaries on entitlement! Basic education is a right – an entitlement. Tertiary education does not qualify.  Liberalisation of access – yes! University for all – impracticable! Much of the current debates appear to have been informed by the problematic of distinction! (I can hear some people calling for my head). Fact is – no amount of liberalisation of access would make everybody a university graduate! There is an inescapable law of natural selection that takes care of everything.

    That above leads to the other issue – the fear that the new fees would price university education beyond the reach of the poor. Good point.

    Question is – who is going to be the ultimately losers at the rate we are going – with mushroom institutions awarding worthless certificates? Isn’t it the so-called poor who cannot afford to send their wards to universities in Ghana or wherever? We delude ourselves to imagine that the world is not paying attention to our declining standards; I hear that foreign institutions are already demanding re-certification of our diplomas. Just how bad would things need to get before they get better?

    I go to the final point – the tendency to understate the heroic contributions of the so-called poor in their relentless struggle to break the shackles of poverty through education. Coming from a rather humble background myself, I perfectly understand the painful sacrifices made by my folks to get me through university education. I know a father who sold the family’s prized Raleigh bicycle to pay for son’s school fees. As it was in the past, so it is today – perhaps till kingdom come. No matter how it is presented, the idea of contributions or sacrifice to education is certainly nothing new or particularly alien. Surely, our people know that nothing venture, nothing gain!”

    The above was written in November 2011.

    Is the war then over? I don’t think so. Clearly, the myth endures. I refer here to the myth that the government has a pocket so deep that it can shoulder the entire cost of tertiary education. It has been with us for so long that calls for behavioural modification are now seen as sacrilege. We claim to be enamoured of world-class institutions, but would rather shy from the debate on what it costs to produce, say for instance, a university graduate, prefering instead the typical advocacy of rule-of-the-thumb subventions that bear no relations with funding needs.

    Let me be clear here; the issue really isn’t really about the responsibility of governments to fund tertiary institutions. Rather, it is the quantum of sacrifice that beneficiaries of tertiary institutions should be called upon to bear. For me, true progress begins when we accept the need for everyone to increase the stake, no matter how modest the  percentage.

     

     

  • LASU fees reduction

    LASU fees reduction

    •The real question is how to handle frictions according to due process and standards

    The burden of educating Nigeria’s young shot into prominence in the past month with protests from students of Lagos State University, Lagos, who expressed, sometimes through vandalism, their objection to the school fees regime.

    The fees, seen as elitist by the students given the indigence and their parents’ resistance, spotlighted the struggle between funding good education and satisfying mediocrity. This backwoods standard marks the present decline evident in the rankings of our tertiary institutions not only in Africa but also in the world.

    This constraint played into the decision by the Babatunde Fashola (SAN) administration to appoint a body to examine the way forward for the institution that had been wracked by intestine disputes among the administrators and lecturers as well as student discontent in the early days of his administration.  The body recommended, among others, a hike in school fees given the deficiency of infrastructure and other areas where the school lagged. The contentious regime of school fees that sparked the hubbub on campus and streets of Lagos resulted from that recommendation.

    Given the restive reaction and other signs of opposition, the Fashola administration set up another body to review the fees. The result was a reduction of the fees to as low as 60 percent of the contentious figure. The administration responded to popular clamour, and that is one of the cardinal traits of a listening government.

    But we must add that the fee reduction throws up existential worries among those who ponder financial books of the institution. It raises questions as to how much should a government spend in the midst of conflicting exigencies of development.

    Governor Fashola has often insisted that the government owns the university but it does not have to run it. The university has a governing council as well as the regular administrative machinery. They should handle the sublime tasks of originating and marshalling ideas to run the university. Added to this is the fact that the private sector, especially the corporate world, should invest heavily in the education of the young and restless. This disdain of a helping hand from the centres of commerce reflects a philistine decay in the policy of the makers of profit towards the generations lurking at the future.

    This is the challenge universities, including LASU, have to live up to and turn into positives. Once we come to terms with this reality, students can be cushioned from what has been seen as the tyranny of fees. Now that the government has reduced the fees, we shall have education but what standard?  We realise that education around the world at that level is never cheap even with the stoutest of government subvention, whether in Europe or North America.

    With regards to the other concerns in the university, rules are rules. The clamour to step up the retirement age above 65 years should follow due process. Most of the clamour arises from lecturers who had already signed up to the rules only to exercise a pirouette. We therefore agree with Chief Fatai Olukoga, special adviser to the governor on education, to the effect that, “employees cannot unilaterally extend their retirement age, unless the employer concedes total control of the institution to employees…”

    The LASU governing council will still have to meet to batten down details of the new regime of fees, and it is hoped that the humility and sensitivity of the Fashola administration’s approach to the fees will set the stage not only to normalcy but also for a societal contemplation on the cardinal philosophical burden of the day: Shall we run our university for standards or sacrifice standards to churn out a generation of graduates without proper education?

  • Lagos to decide on LASU fees today

    Lagos to decide on LASU fees today

    Lagos State Government yesterday said it is yet to decide on the recommendation by the committee set up to look into the agitation by the students of the Lagos State University, (LASU) on the hike in tuition fees.

    The State Executive Council deliberated on the issues for several hours but could not reach conclusion on the new fees to be paid by the students.

    Information and Strategy, Lateef Ibirogba and Special Adviser to the Governor on Information and Strategy, Mr Lateef Raji, who briefed reporters said logical conclusion on the new fee would be reached today.

    Ibirogba said: “The Exco meeting on the decision of the recommendations made by the committee on LASU, has been adjourned till tomorrow (today). After the committee submitted its report, we had a five hours deliberation on it. And during the deliberation, all the issues raised were looked into. Our government is a government that has solid structure and we feel that everything must be thoroughly checked based on its merit.

    On the hope of reducing the tuition fees, Ibirogba said: “Perhaps when we reach the final conclusion on the recommendations made, that is when we will be able to decide if the tuition fee will be reduced or not. At the moment, we are yet to reach agreement on the issues. For us to have spent five hours deliberating on the issues showed that we are ready to address the issues immediately.

    “It will be premature to reveal what the committee recommended because we are yet to reach decision on their recommendation”.

     

  • ‘LASU crisis sponsored by fifth columnists’

    ‘LASU crisis sponsored by fifth columnists’

    … Eight students arraigned for breach of peace

    Lagos State Government has said the crises rocking the Lagos State University are being fueled by fifth columnists bent on derailing government’s plans to reposition the school.

    The enraged students of LASU had on Tuesday paralysed traffic on the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway as they vehemently protested the hike in tuition fees.

    The students demanded that the government should reduce the school fees from N390, 000 to N48, 500 or face their wrath.

    Addressing journalists on the situation on Wednesday, the state Commissioner for Information and Strategy Mr. Aderemi Ibirogba and  his counterpart in the Ministry of  Transportation, Comrade Kayode Opeifa, said certain individual were hiding under the crises to cause  trouble in the state.

    They explained that the government had before now reached an agreement with stakeholders on the way out of the lingering crisis, wondering why the crises had continued to escalate despite assurances from the government.

    According to Ibirogba, the state government has put in place measures to ensure that no student of the institution is left behind for inability to pay the fees, saying the government had given so many of the students scholarships , bursary and increased research budget in the university.

    Meanwhile, eight students of the institution were on Wednesday arraigned before an Ikeja Magistrate Court for breach of public peace.

    The students made up of five males and three females were alleged to have conducted themselves in a manner likely to cause breach of public peace.

    The male students are – Bolarinwa Olamide (23); Oludare Samuel Olayinka (18); Fatukasi Timilehin (19); Akani Segun (27) and Babatunde Bolarinwa (24).

    While the female students are – Ajayi Taiwo (24); Olatimihan Taiwo (20) and Oni Victoria (18).

    They   were arraigned before Magistrate Eniola Fabamwo.

    The police alleged that the students on Tuesday hijacked LAGBUS No: P004 with the registration No SMK 719 XK, property of Lagos State Government.

    The offence, the police said was contrary to and punishable under Section 166 (D) of the Criminal Laws No 11 Vol. 44 Law of Lagos State of Nigeria 2011.

    The students however pleaded not guilty to the charges.

    The magistrates granted each of them bail in the sum of N10, 000 with sureties in like sum.

  • LASU students want portal shut

    LASU students want portal shut

    The Lagos State University Students Union (LASUSU) yesterday took their hard-line stance against hike in their tuition fee to another level, urging the state governor, Babatunde Fashola, to shut down the institution’s payment and registration portal.

    Its president, Mr Nurudeen Yusuf, the union’s President, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that the closure of the portal was necessary until the government reduced the tuition fees.

    “We hereby appeal that the payment and registration portal be closed till the government makes pronouncement on LASU fees as proposed by the students’ union. This is to ward off unforeseen eventualities that may arise in the nearest future,” he said.

    Yusuf said the deadline by the management for students to pay their fees and register courses for the 2013/2014 academic session before May 30 had elapsed.

    He said students were bent on their “no reduction, no resumption” policy and that discussions on how much the students would pay were still ongoing.

    According to NAN, Fashola had, at a meeting with LASUSU on March 31, directed the students to come up with a proposal on how much they could afford.

    The students decided that the fee should be reduced to N46, 500 for returning students and N65, 500 for fresh students.

    The students’ proposal was submitted on April 24, while several reminders were later sent to the governor on the issue.

    Commissioner for Education, Mrs Olayinka Oladunjoye, at a media briefing on May 8, said the government would soon make a pronouncement on fees.

    Yusuf said the students were not satisfied with the government’s statement since the word “soon does not indicate a definite time.” “If a 50-year old can die and we say gone too soon, hence, anytime can be soon,” he said.

    The students’ leader said that sequel to several peaceful protests by the students, the Exco Ad-hoc Committee set up by the state met with the union on the review of the tuition on May 27.

    The Committee, chaired by Mr Kayode Opeifa, Commissioner for Transport, he said, had decided that quality education could not be achieved based on the students’ proposal.

    Opeifa said the tuition of N46, 500 would make LASU a university for the poor and all comers.

    “The committee said the state government is subsidising education in LASU by 90 per cent and government is only responsible for free education up to secondary level,” he said.

  • No pay for striking LASU lecturers

    No pay for striking LASU lecturers

    Lagos State Government has decided to apply the ‘No Work No-Pay’ rule for members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, Lagos State University (LASU) chapter who have resolved to embark on indefinite strike.

    The government in a statement said the decision was to make the union understand that the issues it raised and reasons for the strike did not qualify for such action.

    The government through the Special Adviser to the Governor on Education, Otunba Fatai Olukoga, said the pay rule which was approved by the Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN), would be strictly applied.

    The striking workers the Government said will in addition to losing their salaries not have, their check-off dues deducted while they stand the risk of suffering other disciplinary measures.

    The Government, however, assured members of the union who wish to continue working of adequate protection against any form of harassment, advising such workers to feel free to report on Monday for duty at the university where a register would be opened for them.

  • LASU students, JAF protest fee hike

    LASU students, JAF protest fee hike

    The Lagos State University Students’ Union (LASUSU) and the Joint Action Front (JAF) on Thursday staged a peaceful march in Lagos to protest the fee hike.

    The News Agency of Nigeria reports that scores of LASU students protested at Onipanu through LASU, Anthony campus to the Gani Fawehinmi freedom park, Ojota, Lagos.

    They carried placards with inscriptions: “Fee hike, the root cause of crisis in LASU,” “We demand immediate reversal of increased fees,’’ and “LASU is for all and not for the rich only.’’

    LASUSU President, Nurudeen Yusuf, said the protest was staged as a result of a directive received from the university authorities that all students should pay their fees before May 30.

    “The Management released a memo on May 21, directing all students to pay the outrageous fee for the 2013/2014 academic session, on or before May 30,” he said.

    Yusuf said the authorities’ decision was against the position of the union to the state government for a reduction of the increased fee.

    According to Yusuf, the students in its congress had unanimously agreed not to pay the increased fee for the session until government approved and implemented the reduction, as proposed by the union.

    “We proposed N46,500 for returning students and N65, 500 for fresh students as the new tuition fee, as against N198,000 and N350,000 for medical students,

    “As directed by Governor Babatunde Fashola in a meeting on April 3, the union had submitted the proposal for the new tuition fee on April 24.

    The student leader said since the union was still on the discussion table with the government, the students had agreed not to pay the fees until the reduction was made.

    He said the protest was to sensitise the public to the plight of LASU students and why the reduction must be implemented immediately.

    “We will not pay the outrageous fee until the reduction is made.

    “For a state that generates N77 billion a year and all LASU needs to sustain itself in a year is N10 billion, free tuition is even possible,’’ he said.

     

  • Teachers, students join forces against LASU

    Teachers, students join forces against LASU

    The Lagos State University (LASU) is set to hit the headlines again. Teachers and students are up in arms against the management. They are seeking a reduction in tuition fees raised from N25,000 to between N197,000 and N350,000. Besides, teachers are demanding improved welfare. ADEGUNLE OLUGBAMILA and MOJISOLA CLEMENT report.

    The Lagos State University (LASU) is in the news again. The institution’s branch of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and students are fighting the management. The teachers are seeking improved conditions of service, the students are demanding a reduction in tuition fee. The teachers’ ultimatum to the school to meet their demands expired last Sunday.

    On March 21, ASUU-LASU declared a trade dispute over the no vacancy no promotion clause in the conditions of service and the implementation of the University Miscellaneous Provision Amendment Act which stipulates 65-year retirement age for professors. The Lagos State Government signed the provision in 2012. The union is also seeking a reduction of the tuition fee, which was raised from N25,000 to between N197,000 and N350,000. This last demand is similar to the students. It issued 21-day ultimatum which expired on April 13 following it up with another 14-day ultimatum which expired last Sunday. The letters were addressed to the Chairman, Governing Council, Mr Bode Agusto. Copies were sent to Chancellor, Vice Chancellor, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academics), deans of faculties, heads of departments and ASUU national president, among others.

    The students would have resumed for the 2013/2014 academic session today – two weeks after ending the last session – but for a postponement until next Monday.  It is not certain whether ASUU would start the strike before then.

    In their campaign against the linked fee, student leaders have been urging their colleagues, particularly those in 100 Level to 300-Level, who are directly affected, not to pay until the government responds to a proposal on how to reduce it. The students also described ASUU’s demands as justifiable, advising management to honour them.

    But the management is appealing to the teachers and students to embrace dialogue, noting that the school just recovered from a students’ unrest that disrupted academic calendar in January.

    The management, led by Prof John Oladapo Obafunwa, believes ASUU should continue to engage the executive and legislative arms of government on the implementation of the 70-year retirement age. With respect to the tuition fee, management is also appealing to ASUU to make presentation to government just like LASU students’ Union (LASUSU).

    “With respect to the “no vacancy, no promotion policy”, management again reiterates that this is not the policy of the present administration as it has always been in the Condition of Service since 2008. It is also a fact that people were promoted in 2012 and currently, there are 256 vacancies for academic staff for the 2012/2013 promotion exercise,” said Prof Obafunwa when he honored ASUU-LASU congress to respond to the trade dispute last month.

    The management claimed it has addressed 17 of the 20 concerns of ASUU, but ASUU-LASU chairman Dr Adekunle Idris says it is not true.

    He said: “What we see is the management’s insincerity; it is distorting facts in order to justify its current position, then we will be getting farther away from resolution.

    “We came with about 20 issues affecting our members. The national ASUU also met with them.  The management promised to resolve some of these issues. And because we reached some agreement (with management), we felt there was no point bringing those things to focus again.

    “Management is claiming that they have declared lots for vacancies. Yes it is true. However we are not agitating for non-declaration of vacancies. We are saying that declaring vacancies is not acceptable to us. That portion of the Condition of Service that is being interpreted to mean ‘No Vacancy; No Promotion’ should be expunged since they are interpreting it to stifle our members’ growth. The interpretation we gave to it from our understanding when we were doing the Condition of Service is different from what they are giving to it now.  It simply means vacancies have to be created before our members can be promoted; and that vacancy must be at the discretion of management.  The no vacancy, no promotion which they have now turned into ‘Promotion is a privilege and not a right’ is against all labour laws worldwide. Once our members have fulfilled the conditions for certain promotion, they must be upgraded automatically.”

    Speaking on the retirement age issue, Idris said the university’s Governing Council can effect the retirement age policy and does not need the government to give a nod.

    He said: “We believe those people that constitute the council represent the governor. If it is the government that will do it, let them do it. But we know the making of this law with respect to the retirement age of our members is under the purview of the Council. The council has the right, the duty, and the authority to increase the retirement age. The Governing Council of AOCOED (Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education) which is our sister institution owned by the Lagos state government increased the retirement age of their non teaching staff in December last year. The Council has no right to change the tenure of the principal offices, but they have a right to change the retirement age,” Idris added.

    The ASUU chairman also said the union has been dialoguing with the management on its demands for years without result.

    He said: “We have been talking since 2009 till April 2013; and all through the ASUU national strike last year. Our members said we should continue with our strike after the national strike ended, but we decided to halt it in line with ASUU principle of due process. The national ASUU also visited management.

    “Thereafter we gave 21-day ultimatum, the council did not acknowledge the letter. We again gave 14 days they neither acknowledged nor gave a reply. We then gave seven days and by the third day they contacted us for a meeting (last week Tuesday).  They are now begging us. If they are truly serious, they would not have been begging us. We told them at the meeting that this problem can be resolved within three to four days. Council met on Thursday (last week) yet did not pass the retirement age. They are planning to meet first week in June. That means the strike doesn’t mean anything to them.

    “Over d last one year, we have written 12 letters to the Council Chairman, we aware they are prepared for the strike; but we are equally prepared.  What does it take government to pronounce new school fees regime. This strike can be stopped within three days. It only takes government pronouncement.”

    But a dependable source in government who does not wish to be named, said that ASUU members are biting more that they can chew, urging the union to follow due process.

    The source said: “They (ASUU) are saying AOCOED council did it, let them go and ask AOCOED how they did it. LASPOTECH also did same. But they are not ready to follow due process; rather they have remained adamant.

    “Government met ASUU in December and we told them to write a letter to the Lagos State House of Assembly which will be deliberated on the floor of the House, but they have not. Let me say categorically that the issue is beyond Council’s prerogative as they are saying. I’m surprised that the song they have been singing is strike! Strike!! Strike!!! It is like certain elements are using them, you know this is election period.”

    School fees hike

     

    The school fee increment could be traced to the recommendation of a visitation panel to the university in 2011.  At the peak of the crisis that engulfed the university under Prof Lateef Akanni  Hussain in 2011 which led to the closure of the institution for more than six months, Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola, on the recommendation of the Lagos State House of Assembly set up a Visitation Panel to investigate the crisis.  It was that panel that recommended a raise in tuition from N25.000 to between N197,000 (for Faculty of Arts) and N350 (for College of Medicine).

    However, the LASU Student Union (LASUSU) is insisting that government was selective in its choice of the recommendations, implementing those that favour it to the detriment of the students, many of who come from poor backgrounds.

    At a briefing held at the LASU School of Communication in Ojuelegba, Lagos on Wednesday last week, LASUSU President, Comrade Nurudeen Yusuf Temilola, lamented that since the 725 per cent fee hike was introduced in 2011, enrolment has dwindled drastically in the school.

    Supporting their claims with data, Nurudeen said there has been a sharp drop in enrolment from 4, 570 in 2006, to 1, 416 in 2014, adding that a total of 84 students have dropped out after the last academic session.

    “There is an astronomical dropout rate.  There are several departments where some of the few students dropped out because they could not cope with the huge amount. For others that are struggling, the hope that they will finish with this current fee regime is bleak,” he said.

    Nurudeen also attributed the various uprisings that have occurred the school to hike.  He said successive LASUSU have fought against the fees to date. He recalled how an intense agitation for the reversal of the fees under the Akeem Durojaiye-led SUG led to the suspension of SU activities between October 2011 and July 2012.

    He also recalled how the January protest by students to the secretariat in Alausa, resulted in Governor Fashola summoning the SU leadership for a debate on April 3 and asking them to come up with their own template on how the tuition should be reduced, since according to government, a total reversal is impossible.

    This position, the SUG said, was tabled before the entire students in a general meeting at the university premises on April 7, leading to a proposal where they recommended that the fees be reduced to between N46.5000 (for regular students) and N65,500 (for freshers).

    He said LASU, by the law that established it, is a public utility that is meant to balance social classes and not for profit making.

    The students lamented that unlike before, LASU now holds third and fourth rounds of post-UTME screening to offer admission to candidates who probably are not the best of brains, but have been rejected by their choice universities and now approach LASU as the last resort.

    “Maybe Lagos State government will want to say they are subsidising the education of each student in LASU with N700,000, we are yet to see any concrete evidence to that effect. This is premised on the fact that if a private university can charge N450,000 to include feeding and accommodation for a year, then LASU is costly compared to private schools for paying N350,000 without accommodation and feeding,” he said.

    The student leader said that government has more to lose by under-utilising faculties and human resources in LASU.

    “By under-utilising infrastructure and human resources in LASU, the Lagos State government is paying more. The same fixed overhead cost such as salary that can be used to effectively train 4,500 students is used to train 1000 students. The effect of the fee hike on enrolment takes more from government. As studentship drops, it doubles the cost incurred per student. Assuming the Lagos State government spends N700,000 on students, at 2,000 students, the cost will increase to N1.4 million, If the number of students drops to 1,000 whereas we are entitled to 5,000 students from the NUC quota, it means 4,000 slots are lying fallow.”

    Students of the university also lent their voices on the agitation and hoping for a reversal.

     Opeyemi Davies, a 300-Level Microbiology undergraduate said her petty trader mother has been paying through her nose to send her to school.

    “I am happy about the turn of events, the school fees the Student Union proposed is a very good one and I wish that they would stick to it without being compromised,” she said.

    Another 300-Level student of Fishery Wande Baruwa, corroborated Davies, said:  “I am spending five years in this school and you can imagine me paying that outrageous amount of money with other miscellaneous fees. I support ASUU impending strike wholeheartedly. Who knows, there might be a total reversal.”

    While Abisola Mary, a 300-Level Microbiology student seeks reversal, she does not want ASUU to go on strike.

     “It has not been easy for my father to raise that amount of money. “I went through the Lagos State University Foundation Program before I gained admission to 200-Level through Direct Entry. I support the Student Union proposed fees, but I will plead with ASUU not to embark on this impending strike because the students will be affected most. ASUU should blame the government and not the Vice Chancellor. He did not put himself there.  He is a ceremonial head and is actually dancing to some people’s tunes.”

    Temitope Folaranmi, a final year Mass Communication student said though not affected by the fees, she is concerned that other students are forced to pay it.

    “LASU is state school and is run by people’s taxes.  I support ASUU strike. They feel for the masses that is why they are requesting for a total reversal and I also support the Student Union proposal.  Anything short of this is a capital ‘NO’,” she said.

    On students’ proposal, a highly-placed government source told The Nation it is being addressed.

    “We are looking into it. It might interest you that those complaining are not directly affected by this fee. The Students’ Union even gave us a list of students who could not pay the fees and government paid for them. So they should give us time instead of agitating,” the source said.

  • Resolving the LASU crisis

    SIR: The unfortunate situation at the Lagos State University, Ojoo, Lagos State has unnecessarily dragged on for too long. This should not be. All stakeholders should wade into the matter to avert further harm to the students, parents, academic life and the image of the university. Over the years, critical stakeholders in the university had called for an overhaul of the institution. In a bid to resolve the crisis, various unions in LASU, including the Student Union Government, once stormed the Lagos State House of Assembly with the main demand that the state government should set up a Visitation Panel to look into the various challenges that have reduced the ivory tower to a ‘glorified secondary school’.

    That was the origin of the panel which proposed an increase in tuition fees, replacement of the then vice-chancellor, intervention of the government in the upgrade of infrastructural facilities and the intensification of efforts towards the accreditation of courses being offered, among other recommendations.

    A major component of the union’s demands is for the state government to totally reverse the fees being charged students, which currently ranges from between N197, 000 to 350, 000. The union and others are also demanding the cancellation of the ‘no vacancy, no promotion’ policy of the institution and decried the non-implementation of the Universities (Miscellaneous Provision) Act already operational in other universities.

    No doubt, the problems affecting the education sector are enormous. The major one, which is adequate funding has become a mirage. No level of education in the country is an exception. This was what informed by fee hike by LASU authorities. However, public institutions are not designed to charge fees like the privately-owned counterparts because of their perceived primary role of providing affordable education for all, as basic social and constitutional responsibility.

    Unfrortunately, in this part of the world, it is still not easy to get the people to buy into the culture of endowment and huge private investment in education. That is where LASU is caught-up in a fix of reality.

    As it is, there is urgent need – more than ever before – to create internal, effective funding mechanisms to augment the dwindling government allocations and subventions, attracting endowments, engaging in impactful and profitable research for the corporate world that could in turn be used to generate capital for the economy.

    The way out of the crisis is for the Lagos State Government to immediately reduce the new regime of fees by 50 per cent, suspend the anti-labour and discriminatory ‘no vacancy, no promotion’ policy, and implement the provisions of the Universities (Miscellaneous Provision) Act. It should engage all the stakeholders in a comprehensive discussion on the need for slight adjustment of fees. The deployment of hard-line tactics, unnecessary propaganda and official arrogance will be of no help at all in this case. Sincere dialogue by simply laying the facts bare as it were will be imperative. The time lost to industrial unrests in the university over the years should not be allowed to continue. This is a big challenge for LASU authorities and the Lagos State Government to surmount without further delay.

    • Adewale Kupoluyi 

    Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta