Hundreds of students at the University of Cross River (UNICROSS) protested yesterday against the institution’s policy of “no fees, no exams.”
The protesting students, who came out en masse, besieged the school’s administrative block, chanting, “We no go gree ooh, we no go gree,” to express their displeasure with the school management.
One of the students’ leaders, Oden Ibiang, who faulted the management’s decision regarding payment of school fees before sitting for an examination, told LEADERSHIP Friday that unless the school management makes a U-turn on what he described as an unfriendly decision, academic activities would suffer a setback.
He accused the school’s management of increasing the school fees, stressing that the increment has prevented many students from sitting for their semester examinations.
Reacting, UNICROSS acting vice-chancellor (VC) Prof. Francisca Bassey denied any increment of school fees, stressing that all management wanted was for students to comply with fee payment before sitting for examinations.
She said that the school needs funds to stay afloat.
According to him, the management has not made any fee increment in the last decade.
“Taking care of the students alone, diesel for their hostels, repair of their accommodation—of course, you know, diesel alone. You know we are running three campuses.
“We borrow to augment what the government has been giving; in fairness to the government, they have increased whatever was there before, but the school has to borrow to augment, and the only alternative the school has is the school fees.
“Check across the board what they are paying; indigenes who are the majority have paid about N70,000 in school fees in the last 10 years. Look at the rate of inflation, which is over 300%.
“Ten years ago, how much was fuel when Buhari was in government? How much was rice? How much was a ream of paper, ink, pen, and diesel? So, let’s face it. How much was the NEPA (electricity) bill then and now? We have not increased our fees.
“We have not increased but only asking you to pay. I engaged the student union and they agreed to pay and saw reason with us.
“We have brought in a light for them, fixing their hostels and doing water reticulation. We are facing accreditation and need to fix the classrooms. All we are asking is just to pay school fees.
“If you cannot pay now, we will give you supplementary exams, and they have started complying, but some radicals feel that they are the owners of the university and today decided to go on a rampage.
“We have sorted it out with them and told them that we will shift the exams and give them ample time to go and clear (their debts), and we have agreed with them that it’s either this or that.
“We have postponed the two-day exams, giving them ample time to sort them out with the bursary. Some of them say they have paid, but the bursary has not been updated. We will give you till the weekend to do that, and on Monday, we will resume the exams.
“Those who will not pay by then will be sent home until when they are ready to pay the fees, which is less than 7,000 per month for indigent students because 7 multiplied by 12 is 84,000, which is less than 72,000; that is 6,600 per month.”
