UNIOSUN NOT ELITE UNIVERSITY - AREGBESOLA

Speaking on the occasion, Governor Aregbesola frowned at high fees charged by the university authorities as well as its multi-campus structure. According to him, despite the huge funding from the state and local governments' purses, children of low-income earners in the state found it difficult to get admission into the university due to high tuition fee.

'A situation whereby the public will fund an institution that is run like private universities, where high fees are charged thereby shutting out children of the less-privileged is unacceptable to this administration.'A workable solution that will liberalize your admission policy by ensuring that no indigene of Osun State is shut out due to inability to meet your demands for high fees should be evolved. The situation today is that children from averagely blessed homes cannot afford to seek knowledge in UNIOSUN.

'No working class parents, who live on legitimate income, can afford current UNIOSUN fees. Whatever could lead the public to conclude that an arrangement is put in place to pay lip service to transparently honest living must be shunned like a plague.'In a situation whereby no middle class income member of the society can afford your fees and only the children of the upwardly mobile high class parents can sponsor children in UNIOSUN, run with public fund, is ungodly and intolerable,' the governor stated.

He advocated the establishment of a cost-effective collegiate university system funded by all states in the South West zone, which, he said, would be capable of graduating thousands of students annually. He challenged the authorities of UNIOSUN to look inward on how to generate income rather than solely depending on government funding.

Earlier in his speech, Ooni of Ife challenged the governor to do 'everything humanly possible to allow this university to grow from strength to strength, because the Yoruba as a whole will not mind selling everything they have in order to train their wards.' Ooni Sijuade recalled that the last four years of establishing UNIOSUN had been characterized by serious thinking and researches, saying: 'There is no need looking back because the baby (UNIOSUN) must not die.'

In his speech, Vice-Chancellor of the institution, Professor Sola Akinrinade, challenged the management of the university to look into its future and what next to do in order to be relevant in the comity of leading ivory towers across the world.

A total of 371 students finished as pioneer graduates of the institution, with nine of them bagging first class degrees.

Part of the highlight of the event was the conferment of an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters by the authorities of the university.

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