candidates seeking admission into the Lagos State University, Ojo, has reduced, due to the cost of school fee. When our correspondent visited the university on Monday to monitor the 2012/2013 post Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, about 3,000 candidates came for the exam.
Also, the post-UTME which used to hold for one week in previous years for all candidates seeking admission into the institution was conducted in one day (Monday).
The number of candidates that used to sit for similar examination in the last four years fluctuated between 15,000 and 20,000 candidates.
Students and candidates who spoke to our correspondent ascribed the development to the hike in tuition which began at the beginning of the 2011/2012 academic session.
They explained that the hike in the fees had scared away prospective students who could not afford to pay the huge tuition.
A student of the university, Solomon Daniel, said the university community usually witnessed an increase in human and vehicular traffic whenever the post-UTME was conducted.
He said, “The scanty number of students taking the exam stems from the astronomical increase in the tuition of the university. The campus marshals- the school’s security outfit-usually had hectic time controlling the crowd and traffic in previous years.
“As you can see the exam is holding only today and the candidates’ turn out is low.”
He said, “Last year about 5,000 people were offered undergraduate admission but due to the hike in tuition a little over 1,000 students accepted the offer.
“I foresaw that the situation would be like this because the fees are just beyond the reach of ordinary Nigerians. Imagine students paying N348,000 in a state-owned institution. The least paid by non-science based faculties is N190,000.”
A candidate, Oluwatoyin Baiyewu, who is writing the exam for the third time, expressed optimism that she might be offered admission this year because of the few number of applicants writing the exams.
Baiyewu said, “I wrote the exams on Day Three of the exercise last year and the population was massive compared to what we have now. The increase in fees caused it because not everybody can afford to pay such an amount.
Another candidate, Albert Temitope, said she was not aware that the school’s tuition had been increased before she made LASU her university of first choice.
A student, who was simply identified as Ade, said the reduction in the number of students seeking admission into the university begun during the beginning of the current session.
Attempts by our correspondent to get an official figure of those who registered and sat for the exams proved abortive.
Efforts to speak with the institution’s Public Relations Officer, Mr. Sola Fosudo, was futile as he was not in his office when our correspondent visited. Workers in his office also refused to comment on the issue.
-Punch
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