The Vice chancellor of University not Port Harcourt has bemoaned the poor state of the nation’s economy and warned that except public universities are allowed to increase school fees, they may soon collapse due to poor funding.
He stated this during the press briefing in view of the institutions 30th Convocation Ceremony.
According to him, the critically needed funding for institutions by the government is dwindling by the day, in the face of failing oil prices, while the average cost of running each university is correspondingly escalating by the day.
“The truth is that statutory federal allocations alone can no longer be relied upon to run the universities as little or nothing is left to embark on meaningful research and infrastructural development after payment of salaries. As I have always maintained, the plain truth is that we can no longer shy away from giving serious consideration to the issue of introducing some form of school fees (or charges) in the Nigerian university system, if we hope to dig it out of the deep morass into which years of unrealistic tuition-free education has placed it.”
In his opinion parents should pay a little more to sustain the Nigerian university system if they still hope to see public universities in the next 10 years; adding that some Nigerians were prepared to pay huge sums to sustain quality education in other countries, and yet treat the ones here with utter contempt.
