The Vice-Chancellor, University of Medical Sciences, Ondo, Prof. Adesegun Fatusi, has reiterated that the university would not reverse its decision to increase tuition for the students.
The management of the school recently announced the increase in the tuition for the fresh students who put in for various medical and science programmes of the institution by more than 100 per cent.
Fatusi, who spoke at a stakeholders’ meeting on the campus of the university, on Friday, explained that the specialised school might face imminent collapse if not well funded.
According to the don, the recent increment in students’ fee was not done to place unnecessary burden on parents and students but the decision was taken with regards to necessary requirements needed to properly train students in medical fields. He maintained that inspite of the increment, UNIMED still charged the lowest fees among state-owned universities of medical sciences in the country.
He said, “Several times, I have struggled to understand what was going on in the mind of the initiators of this great dream when they conceptualized it with apparently no considerable thought about its infrastructural needs nor its financial sustainability.
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“Our fee for the current students is only 10 to 15 per cent increase and that is due to a number of factors and situation trends.
“This is a specialised school where only very few students are permitted to be trained for each course. For example, it is only 10 students for dentistry. So, when people compare prices, they cannot be comparing it with big universities that are all conventional universities that will have up to 100 to 200 students.
With the nature of this university, it is capital intensive in terms of equipment which are dollar-denominated. There is no way we can collect the same money we collected in the past with the dollar now at over N500 and the inflation rate at the level it is.
“Even for the new school fees, in at least 11 courses, the school fees are still under N200,000. It is only about three to four courses that the fees had gone up. If you even compare it to the other state universities of medical sciences in this country, our fee is still considerably cheaper.
“In addition, we have given 50 per cent discount to the indigenes of Ondo State. That is significant, no other state university has done that. With the way we are, we need generous fund increase in the university to make things work. Parents need to do their part, government, we hope this will be able to help us and other community members.
“We have all agreed that this school cannot move forward without increased funding.”
