OAU Students Protest N15,000 Portal Fee as Union Advises Against Payment

Students of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, have protested the increase in the university’s e-portal access charge from N6,000 to N15,000, as the students’ union advised members against making the payment pending further clarification.

The union said its advisory was informed by the need to ensure that decisions concerning essential student services take adequate consideration of affordability, accessibility and the collective interests of students.

It stressed that the university’s e-portal was not an optional digital service but an indispensable platform for several academic activities, including school fee payments, course registration, hostel accommodation balloting and other academic processes.

“It is important to emphasise that the University’s e-portal is not merely an optional digital service. It is an indispensable platform through which students undertake critical activities, including school fee payment, course registration, hostel accommodation balloting and other academic processes,” the statement added.

The union maintained that any financial arrangement attached to accessing the platform required careful consideration to prevent students from being disadvantaged.

It also urged students to remain calm and avoid spreading unverified information while awaiting further communication from the union.

“We therefore urge all students to remain calm, exercise patience and rely on official communications from the Union for further updates. Students are also advised against making decisions based on unverified information or circulating reports,” it said.

However, in a separate statement issued on Monday, the Dean of the Division of Student Affairs, Prof. J. A. Odedire, defended the increase, explaining that the N15,000 charge was not a new levy but an adjustment to an existing payment previously fixed at N6,000.

Odedire said the university administration increased the charge to strengthen the security of its electronic portal and reduce the risk of students’ data being compromised.

“The Portal access charge has always been one of the line items of the sundry charges being paid by students over the years. It is not a new charge!” he said.

According to him, the university decided to host the portal in one of the most secure data storage environments to enhance its protection.

“In order to ensure a more secure environment for the university e-portal and to reduce the chances of data compromise, the University Administration took the decision to warehouse the portal in one of the most secure environments in the world of data storage, which necessitated a moderate increase of the portal access charge from the previous N6,000 to N15,000,” the statement read.

The dean further explained that the new arrangement required a separate payment gateway, different from the Remita electronic payment platform traditionally used by the university.

He said this accounted for the separate payment of the portal access charge, which was previously included among other items under the sundry charges.

Odedire also assured students, particularly those from financially disadvantaged backgrounds, that the university would not introduce policies capable of hindering their education.

“The University Administration is very mindful of the financial ability of some indigent ones among the generality of our students and will not create any condition that will disenfranchise such categories of students in achieving their academic pursuit and dreams,” he added.