There is every likelihood that when universities finally resume after the strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), tuition fees and other fees may go up as high as a 100 per cent.
Ebonyi State University Chapter of ASUU on Tuesday warned of this likely increase in school fees if the demands of ASUU were not fully met eventually by the Federal Government.
Chairman of the chapter, Prof. Ndubuisi Idenyi, gave the warning in Abakiliki at a news conference on the current ASUU strike.
Idenyi said the fee hike would come when universities attempted to source money for their Earned Academic Allowances as directed by the Federal Government.
“We demanded for N500 billion but the government has only released N100 billion to university councils for infrastructure development in selected universities and another N30 billion for part-payment of Earned Academic Allowances.
“The government has asked various universities councils to source the balance.
“But the question is from where the funds will come if not through increase in school fees.”
According to him, the directive has distorted the report of the technical sub-committee on the report of the “Needs Assessment on Nigerian Universities.
“Government’s partial implementation of our demand would generate series of problems in our universities, including differentials in school fees structure in public schools.
“The action would also cause migration of students and over-population of students in a particular school.”
He said the directive might deny many people access to quality education.