The management of Benin Study Centre of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) on Monday, January 9, 2023, convened an interactive forum for its students over the updated fees schedule which the university released recently.
The interactive forum which came within the first week of resumption of work by the management of the university nationwide after the new year break, was aimed at clarifying the confusion arising from the updated fees schedule recently uploaded to the students' portal by management for returning and fresh students of the university.
The director of the centre, Prof. Olubiyi A. Adewale, while welcoming the students to the 2023 academic session, emphasised that the purpose of the meeting was to intimate students of the reason for the increment in fees and to avail them the opportunity of asking questions and getting feedbacks.
Adewale stated that fees, in any school system, were subject to routine review and that in the last 10 years the university has not made any obvious adjustments on fees because NOUN believes fees should be kept as low as possible.
He pointed out that fees paid by students and funds received from the government could no longer sustain the running cost of the university hence the need for the increment.
The centre director further explained that amidst the economic upheaval, NOUN has continuously absorbed these pressures in its bid to maintain a relatively affordable system of education .
To buttress this fact, Adewale made reference to the high cost of running diesel generators during e-exams, payment of duty tour allowances to facilitators, transportation of scripts and projects to marking and moderation centres across the six geopolitical zones of the country, etc.
To ease the apparent tension in the minds of the students, the centre director elucidated the situation by informing them that concession has been granted to returning students to pay just about of N500 extra as an addition to the previous fees per course as opposed to newly admitted students who are expected to operate on the new fee level.
Following the address by the centre director, a couple of students raised their hands to make enquiries on some issues .
A 200Level Business Administration student inquired about the process of registering for the semester.
He was advised to meet his desk officer in order to have proper guidiance before registering his courses and exams for the semester.
Similarly, a 400Level Primary Education student pleaded for the systems at the e-exam centre to be set up before the day of the proposed exam to avoid any issues .
In his response to this, Adewale began by apologising for the unexpected incident that occurred during the 2022_2 e- exams where exams had to be postponed due to malfunctioning in the system software.
He however assured students that the systems are always tested to ensure they are in work mode before the proposed date of exams.
A 400Level student of Entrepreneurship also pleaded for extension of the daily time schedule for exams to enable students with genuine reasons to unavoidably arrive late for exams to be granted access to exams halls.
The centre director informed them that the timing of the e-exams are fixed and any late login would be rejected.
He rather advised students to do their utmost to be punctual for exams and to exhibit a great level of adherence to the rules and regulations guiding the conduct of exams in the institution.
The students were appreciative of the management of the centre for reaching out to students and making efforts to douse their confusion by making clarifications about the new fee schedule.
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