Vice chancellor of Rivers State University, Professor Isaac Zeb-Obipi has said the management of the institution is not insensitive to the plight of students who are lamenting the recent increase in the cost of obtaining convocation gowns and other associated fees, against the background of the economic situation in the country.
He is however, appealing for the understanding of all stakeholders, including students and parents/guardians, arguing that the university is also facing challenges that require reasonable capital outlay and has to look inwards to source funds.
Zeb-Obipi, who spoke during a media chat at the campus of the university in Port Harcourt, stressed that the management of the institution had to dig deep to harness its sources of funding to enable it carry out a successful convocation ceremony slated for December this year.
“Our revenue is not sufficient to take care of our challenges, the management thought it wise to harness our sources of revenue, and one of the sources of our revenue is our convocation. We need money for a lot of things but we don’t have sufficient money, our convocation is in December and that is why we are telling the graduands early enough.” he said.
He disclosed that before arriving at the various fees for the convocation ceremony, meetings were held with the Student Union Government (SUG), postgraduate students and National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) to explain the position of the institution and seek their understanding.
Zeb-Obipi said: “We engaged the student union government, we engaged the postgraduate students, we engaged NANS and got inputs from the students’ leadership. The hardship the students are facing, the university is also facing it.
We have several bills to pay, and we took the decision in good faith.
“Our sister universities are charging more, we were charging 40,500, we can not continue that way, we have programmes that need to go through accreditation, our hostels need to be fixed, we need books in the library, we need books and equipment in the laboratories, we need enough classrooms, but we don’t have sufficient money.”
He explained further that due to the number of those scheduled to attend the convocation, additional facilities would be needed to accommodate them, in addition to the production of yearbook, lapels, scarfs, scrolls and certificates with security imprints.
Zeb-Obipi disclosed that the institution has benefited severally from various interventions but was quick to add that there are other sectors competing for the attention of government, hence the need to look inwards.
“The Rivers State government provides salaries; it intervenes and got several facilities built, among others but the state has other responsibilities that are demanding, we have to now look at how we can harness resources available to us,” the vice chancellor said.
He explained that the university was making innovations to improve the interface between the institution and parents/guardians, especially as regards going online to check how their wards are performing in school.
Zeb-Obipi said: “We are making innovations. We are making sure that students are able to get their exam results before the start of another session.
“Parents and guardians can go online, access our portal to check what’s happening to their children in school, students are graduating when they are meant to graduate, we have maintained back to back academic session, among others.”
