The Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU) in Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State and its medical students are squabbling over “extra tuition fees”. The students are claiming that it is a ploy to extort them, but the university denies the allegation. The controversy, which is stalling the students’ induction into the medical profession, may not be resolved if the government does not intervene, reports ERNEST NWOKOLO (Abeokuta).
Trouble is brewing at the Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital (OOUTH) in Sagamu, Ogun State.
Medical students of the university are on collision course with the management over what they call “extra tuition fees”. The hospital is the medical training of the university, which is in Ago Iwoye.
The students are accusing the authority of forcing them to pay higher tuition fees without apparent reason. Each student is to pay N150,000 (for indigenes of Ogun State) and N230,000 (non-indigenes), as tuition fees for two years extended stay in school. But the students will have none of it.
The university has denied this of extortion claim.
On February 25, the students stormed the House of Assembly to urge the lawmakers to prevail on the university to desist from extorting them via nebulous tuition fee.
At the lawmakers’ instance, the university management convened a meeting of the students and their parents on March 3 to resolve the issue.
At the meeting chaired by the Vice-Chancellor (VC), Prof Saburi Adesanya, it was resolved that no student should pay any extra tuition fee aside the mandatory fees for six sessions and a one-off developmental levy of N40,000 to assist the university. At the meeting were the Deputy Vice Chancellor, Prof Adewale Sule-Odu, Provost of Obafemi Awolowo College of Health Science, Prof Yomi Ogun and Chairman of the Parents’ Forum Rev Canon Remi Onajole.
The VC was said to have accepted the agreement reached at the meeting, but the management later reneged on its implementation and pasted a notice after two weeks, directing the students to pay the additional tuition fees.
The students have vowed not to pay what would amount to 10 years tuition for a six-year programme.
According to them, they should not be made to suffer further financial pains for an irregular academic calendar that foisted two additional years upon them for no fault of theirs.
The President of the Students Union Government (SUG), Comrade Ifade Olusegun said the problem had been on for long, adding that despite their protest, the authority appears unrelenting.
Olusegun said: “It is unfair to charge the medical students extra fee for the extra years they are to spend for disruption of their academic calendar brought about by lecturers strike, doctors’ strike and crisis between management and non-academic staff.
“The students are not the cause. Medical programme is six sessions and they have already paid for it. Now, the university wants them to pay for the additional years imposed upon them. This is not fair,” he said.
It was gathered that following last year’s strike by the academic staff of public universities that spanned over five months, coupled with the internal crisis within OOU brought about the by the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) OOU chapter and other non – teaching staff who at different time disrupted university calendar while agitating for better remuneration and other benefits. In all these, the medical students were worst affected.
The strike disrupted their programme and they have been asked by the university to stay extra two years than necessary to enable them complete the theoretical and clinical (practical) work for the award of M.B.B.S (General Medicine and Dental Surgery).
Not done, the management said they would also pay tuition fee for the extra years to be spent and this is already taking a toll on them as the final year medicals have been prevented from doing the required induction.
It was gathered that following the intervention of some government officials, the management asked indigenes to pay N45,000 while non – indigenes are expected to pay more which the students accepted. However, Yemi Adegbesan, President of the OOU Medical Students Association, claims the VC, made a volte -face and directed them to pay N150,000 or N230,000.
He said neither him nor his peers understood how the university management arrived at the new figure of N75,000 (indigenes) or N115,000 (non-indigenes) per student yearly for the two extra sessions.
Describing the fees as illegal, Adegbesan said the medical school curriculum runs for six years, which requires them to pay for six sessions, with or without strikes by academic or non-academic staff of the institution.
Adegbesan said: “Prof Saburi Adesanya is not being fair, here. He has refused to allow final year medical students from OOU do their induction just because he wants them to pay extra school fees for two sessions. The students have extra time in school because of ASUU, SSANU, NASU and other unions’ strikes. We had last December 17 written a petition to the House on the issue. But, up till now, nothing has been done.”
He pleaded with the Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Prince Suraj Adekunbi, to urgently wade into the matter as “time is running out on the side of the final year students”.
In line with Adekunbi’s promise that the lawmakers would look into the matter, the House of Assembly has scheduled a meeting with the warring parties next Monday. The university’s management, students Senate and the Governing Council have been summoned to appear before the House’s Committee on Education, Ethics and Petition on Monday next week.
Assuring the students of resolution of the problem, Adekunbi said: “I also have a brother in your school that is in his tenth year, so I understand your plight but I want you to have confidence in us that we’ll do the right thing and everything will be done in accordance with the provision of the law”.
Denying the students’ claims of extortion and malpractice, the OOU management said the final year medical students were not asked to pay extra tuition due to strike in the university.
The Head, Corporate Affairs Division, Mr Niyi Oduwole, said the extension of period of medical students in the clinical school was due to strike by workers’ unions at the teaching hospital, which have necessitated the payment.
“To set the records straight, we want to make it abundantly clear that no student, including our medical students, was directed to pay extra tuition due to any strike in the university. It would be recalled that the recent national industrial action embarked by staff unions that lasted for over six months did not attract any additional fees for the students. Our students resumed for the continuation of their academic activities without paying extra fees including the medical students.
“However, extension of period of study of medical students in the clinical school due to strike in the teaching hospital by doctors and other ancillary medical personnel may occur. This did happen to the current final year medical students where there was a prolonged academic year due to the 2010/2011 strike by the Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital staff that lasted for about nine months. This strike cannot be reflected on normal university calendar like other unions strike.
“The university had to make ad-hoc arrangement to accommodate the backlog of students from the pre-medical school, thereby resulting in about six sets of students in the clinical programme instead of normal three sets. The stress imposed by overcrowding led to further extension. In totality, the students affected have to spend extra sessions above the normal academic sessions.”
However, the students fault the claim of extra fees on this basis. They argue that the university incurred no loss in revenue from their prolonged stay in school as six sets of medical students are expected to pay tuition every session.
They said even the Part three students who have been asked by the university to go on “Leave of Absence” have paid for the current session and would also pay for the next session when it resumes in three months time.
A final year (500 level) medical student, who desired anonymity, explained why the 300 Level medical students are on leave of absence.
He said: “The medical curriculum is structured in such a way that after Part 3, you write your first professional exam (Part I MBBS exam) in Anatomy, Physiology & Biochemistry.
“Then the students go on a month break and resume in Sagamu for 400L (Pathology and Pharmacology).
The thing is, right now, the people in 400L haven’t moved on to 500L, so there’s no vacancy in that class. They will move three months from now (June), considering the pace of their ongoing programme.
“The truth is that this situation, although not normal, is not new. The best solution would have been to allow the class to resume after their one month break. Unlike in the past, individual classes are much smaller now (about 50 per class, though fees have sky-rocketed), so it would not really be much burden for the lecturers to cope.
“In the past, there were single classes with populations above 200. But the Vice Chancellor is playing up the “Leave of Absence” phenomenon as a form of threat to parents so they will accept to pay extra fees/additional tuition.
” He claims that when students go on “Leave of Absence”, they don’t have to pay school fees, but that 300L class have paid for the current session (2012/2013) already and the next session 2013/2014 starts in June, which is when they will resume, so they will have to pay again.
“The medical programme isn’t structured according to semesters. The programme is continuous and postings are counted in weeks, so there are hardly any breaks or holidays until after major exams. But the entire programme is structured to fit into six sessions.
“The second major exam takes place in 400L (Part II MBBS exam). The third major exam takes place in 500L (Part III MBBS exam) while the fourth and final major exam takes place in 600L (Part IV MBBS exam).There are many smaller exams interspersed all through the programme of course, they are called in-course examinations.
“Medical students pay school fees whenever their counterparts on the main campus are paying because the university management insists on it since the university operates a central payment portal. The portal opens for payment at the beginning of a session and closes after a time interval allowed for registration.
“But everyone understands that the medical students’ final tuition is the sixth one. There is no controversy about this. It was the desperation to generate funds that made this new Vice Chancellor to consider exploring the possibility of asking medical students to pay school fees ad infinitum.”
The Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Mr Segun Odubela, said the government was meeting with the students, lecturers and management with a view to finding solutions to matter.
