Why BUK was ‘forced’ to hike registration fees- VC

The Vice Chancellor of Bayero University, Kano, Professor Sagir Adamu-Abbas, has disclosed that the University was forced to increase fees paid by students due to the “enormous” amount of running the institution.

Adamu-Abass who spoke to journalists in Abuja, on Sunday, said the institution had a monthly electricity bill of N35m.

He also noted that the university authority introduced various measures to cushion the effect of fuel subsidy removal on the part of the staff and ameliorate the impact of the recent registration fees hike on the part of students.

Speaking further on youth unemployment, the don noted that the National Universities Commission redesigned the curriculum to ensure that Nigerian graduates compete on the global stage.

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The VC said, “Nigerian universities, not just BUK, have to redesign their curriculum. But I believe, you know that the NUC has already commenced that and we have already keyed in and we have already submitted our 30% curriculum review to NUC.

“We factored industry and professional bodies in designing the 30% curriculum. That was what we did and submitted to the NUC. When students graduate, they can easily fit into the industries or they can create something on their own,” he said.

Speaking on the increase of registration fees, the Vice Chancellor lamented that, “the cost of running the institution was enormous, especially the high cost of provision of electricity, which he estimated about 75 million monthly. The bill for electricity is about N35 million monthly while the bill for the purchase of diesel for generators is about 40 million.

“The management was forced to increase the registration because it was practically impossible to provide social services to a student population of around 45,000, including a postgraduate and staff population of over 5,000, teaching and non-teaching.

“The increment was done in full consultation with staff unions including members of Academic Staff Union of Universities among others and students. The university also introduced welfare packages for their staff such as non-interest loans from microfinance banks payable within six months.

“Other incentives introduced to cushion the effect of the increase in fuel price that has caused the high price of commodities, were the provision of foodstuffs, shuttle buses, bicycle loans for junior staff payable within nine months at a cheaper rate,” he said.

He also disclosed that the university equally introduced a job scheme for students, whereby they were engaged to render some services to the university and they were paying N15,000 monthly.

“This does not affect their normal learning because it does not take much of their time as some were to clean some surroundings or render certain services within the university and get paid at the end of the month.”

According to him, at the initial stage when this was introduced over 2,000 students applied, while 120 of them got the offer, disclosing that the number would be increased to 150 during the new recruitment that would be done immediately after the students resume on the campus.