Reps to investigate high acceptance fees by varsities, polytechnics, others

House of Representatives, on Wednesday, showed concern over the enormous amount of money paid by students in the tertiary institutions of the country as acceptance fees.

Acceptance fees are the fees paid by students given admission to their chosen institution. It is meant to confirm that prospective students have accepted the admission offered them and are ready to continue with registration and other processes.

The House said the turn of events created a hindrance to the seamless entry process into universities. Consequently, the House appealed to the Federal Government to augment the funds of public universities to reduce the exorbitant drive for Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) at the detriment of general access to public education in Nigeria.

The parliament additionally directed the Committee on Tertiary Institution and Services to investigate the high fees charged by the institutions.

The resolve was as a result of a motion, tagged “Need to Investigate the Acceptance Fees Charged by Tertiary Institutions in Nigeria”, sponsored by Julius O. Ihonvbere from Edo State at plenary.

Moving the motion earlier, Ihonvbere stated, “The arbitrary high acceptance fees charged by some public universities on new students across the country have become a matter of great concern to many families.”

“Amid the rising frustrations over the exorbitant fees, indigent families of new students that are forced to pay the acceptance fees are bemoaning the unusual astronomical increases against the backdrop of the fact that federal universities are supposedly tuition-free.

“The acceptance fees are discriminatory, as they vary from one University to the other which clearly shows that they have become mere internal revenue-generating mechanisms, thus constituting an impediment to the smooth process of entry into Universities.”

The lawmaker further said that while a number of the institutions are charging token fees, others are charging exorbitantly, others charge nothing, whereas most institutions do not charge fees against tuition fees, subsequently questioning if the institutions were not set up under the same law.

He said, “If the situation is unchecked, acceptance fees may surreptitiously become the school fee, thus affecting the number of students that may gain entry into higher institutions in Nigeria.

“The dire consequences of exorbitant acceptance fees in our Public Universities have led to many indigent students losing their admission as a result of their inability to afford the fees.”

Approving the motion, the House gave the committee four weeks to accomplish the assignment and give a report on it for further legislative action.