Calm Returns To LASU After Reversal Of School Fees

ACADEMIC activities have resumed at the Lagos State University, Ojo following the recent reversal of the school fees from N350,000 to N25,000 by the state Governor, Babatunde Raji Fashola. Vice Chancellor of LASU, Professor John Obafunwa enthused that things are calm on the campus. “We don’t have striking workers or students. “We brought back the final year students so that they could sit for their exam, followed by the freshers and followed by the so-called satellites. That is from 200 level to 500 level. They came back, had their exams papers marked despite the ASSU strike. Senate met, we considered the results and we also approved a new academic calendar for the 2013/14 session which we strictly adhered to. We later had our convocation,” he said.

He added that about 3,112 LASU students were deployed as part of Batch B for the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) exercise. “If we never had exams, they wouldn’t have gone for NYSC. As you can see, things are back to normal. Even about two weeks before the university management signed the resolution with the Academic Staff Union of Universities ASUU- LASU, a number of our lecturers were back. Students were coming back for their lecture. Thanks to the state government with the recent further downward review of school fees.

“The students were in my office and they were quite happy with it. I want to say that even before the further downward review to N25,000, most of the students had paid their school fees,” he said.

Obafunwa said that now that the school fees has been reviewed to what it was before (N25,000) he was making the necessary adjustment of the university portal so that

students could pay and complete their registration.

“We look forward to the exams for the first semester and we are hopeful that everything will be back to normal so that we can finish the current session by the first month of next year.”

He revealed that about 90 per cent of students had paid before the further reduction of school fees by the government. “The school is already looking into that. The reversal ought to be with immediate effect. Before the further review to N25,000, there was an initial reduction of about almost 50 per cent. We had already calculated how much we were going to refund to the students.

“Now that we have had another review back to the old fees, we are in the process of recalculating the whole thing again. It is going to be addressed, nothing is hidden.” “There is something that I can assure you, not just on the part of the university, but on the part of the state government. Regardless of the reduction of the school fees, all the infrastructural development going on in LASU will continue to go on.”

He disclosed that it was during the crisis that the state government commenced the accommodation for the staff on the campus. “We are talking about three blocks of 36 flats. It was during the so called strike that the development of LASU radio commenced.”

The university, he said, remains committed towards doing all that is necessary to move to higher heights. “People are free to read meanings into whatever. Personally, I don’t bother myself about what some people say. I guess with time people will come to realize that certain things are not necessarily more important. It is for us to continue to educate our people with regard to entrepreneurship and what other benefits are out there in the world. Yes, you can be a graduate but you might end up in something else.”

On his part, President, Lagos State University Students’ Union, Nurudeen Yusuf recalled that about 1000 students left the university because they could not afford the school fees which was between N250,000 and N350,000. He is happy that many of the students are now ready to come back to the school.

“When LASU was admitting more students, there was more money to run the system than when it was admitting less. In Malaysia, University Malaya is tuition-free. In Harvard University, 90 per cent of the money they use to run the school is from endowment funds. No university can rely on school fees only to run the university,” Yusuf said.

He added that N10.8 billion is needed to run LASU in a year and the government in the 2014 budget made provision for N4.3 billion. “The government should inject more money into the university,” he averred.

According to him, unlike some other states which have two state universities, Lagos State has only one. “Lagos State generates more than N120 billion in a month while Ekiti State generates less than N500 million in the same month. In Ogun State they have two state universities. Yet none of the universities charged up to what Lagos State charged, when the fees were high. What we are saying in essence is this: LASU should be better funded because more money is coming to the government.”

He recalled that during their protest, there wasn’t violence. “We didn’t break a piece of broom, let alone set a house on fire. All we did was to go on civil disobedience. We marched on the highways to get the government’s attention.”

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