By Ayodele Oni
Students of the Federal University of Technology Akure, (FUTA) on Monday embarked on protest over hike in school fees, which led to complete blockage of the Akure-Ilesa highway.
The situation led to traffic jam on the road for hours as the students barricaded the ever busy expressway, displaying various placards and chanted solidarity songs to show their displeasure.
To curtail the situation, the management has announced postponement of resumption date for 2023/2024 academic session indefinitely and blocked institution’s portal to stop students from further registration.
The management insisted that tuition remains free while increment was made on some certain essential utilities to ensure that they were not stopped.
The President of FUTA Students Union, Olayemi Oluwasoromidayo also known pleaded with the management of the school to revert to the old school fees in view of the current economic challenges in the country.
Oluwasoromidayo said the students body had met with the management many times but it refused to yield to their demands hence their decision to stage a protest.
He revealed that the last increment was not even up to one year before the new hike was effected.
The students leader pointed out that the management had increased the school fees to over N200 thousand for freshers while old Students who were paying N35 thousand would now pay N130 thousand. He said they would continue to stage the protest until their demand was met.
A statement by Adegbenro Adebanjo, director corporate communication, stated that “The Management of the Federal University of Technology Akure FUTA has ordered the indefinite postponement of resumption of students for the 2023/2024 academic session. It has also directed that all students currently on campus and in hostels within the University vacate them within 24 hours.
“The Management also directed that registration of returning students via the University portal and payment of fees by all Returning students for the new academic session via the portal scheduled to begin on Monday January 15 ,2024 be put on hold .
“It is important to State that the University DID NOT open the portal for Registration for Returning Students for the new session contrary to what was being bandied in the public domain.
“On the proposed new fees and charges , they are mainly for students related services which are sourced from the economy . And the costs of such goods and services provided by the University for the students will certainly be impacted by costs of Good and services in the economy.
“To ensure smooth running of the University, certain consumables and payments for municipal services such as electricity, water , hostel maintenance and cleaning and sundry other services are necessary and the costs of providing the services have shot up and the new charges are in response to this.
“Other costs that were adjusted as a result of economic reality include medical examination for all new students , Biometric ID cards and Tertiary Institutions Students Health Insurance Programme TISHIP administer by NHIS for students, and final year book.
It is important to say that Tuition is free and no money is being charged as tuition fee
“The Management reiterates that tuition remains free for all students and that it has inbuilt mechanism within the system to look into and build consensus on matters affecting students including charges and fees. And that mechanism is working on this matter and consensus will be achieved.”
 on Monday embarked on protest over hike in school fees, which led to complete blockage of the Akure-Ilesa highway.){kind=link}