By Victor Akande
The 2018 graduates of the Federal University Oye Ekiti are set to protest failure of the university management to issue them transcripts more than a year after graduation.
The document is a copy of a student’s permanent academic record, which usually means all courses taken and all grades received by a student from the first day of school to the final semester.
Our correspondent gathered that efforts made by the graduates to get their transcripts have been neglected by authority on several occasions.
Speaking with out reporter in anonymity, a graduate of Microbiology said the delay resulted in the forfeiture of a scholarship for his Masters programme abroad, an opportunity many graduates seek.
“I have applied for my transcript for over a year and three weeks now. I applied on the 14th of April, 2018 after paying the sum of N10000. I was awarded a scholarship outside the country and I needed my transcript to register. Because the transcript was not released and has still not been released, I had to forfeit the scholarship. I now need it direly to register for my Masters program here in Nigeria and it has still not been released.”
A source in the university told this newspaper that “the school has not issued certificates yet. Certificates should be awarded during the convocation ceremony but statement of result which should last for two years was issued in place of the certificate. There is no news of a convocation holding anytime soon though there are two sets on ground waiting to be convoked”, he lamented.
Another graduate of Theatre and Media Arts who chose anonymosity for the fear of victimization said, “I wrote my final paper in 2017, I did my final project defense in 2017, the session ended in October, 2017. My statement of result says January, 2018. Why?”
“We have not been convoked. Without convocation, there is no certificate. Some recently applied for letters of attestation and they have not gotten it till now.”
He further said, “While some schools give out transcripts for free or require a token of N3000, we are required to pay N10000 for local transfer and N5000 for a student’s copy. Those who want to further their education outside the country have to pay N50000 for the transcript.
“I need my transcript to register for my Masters program which will close at the end of the week. I applied for my transcript in March, paid the required sum for it and have still not gotten it.
“I woke up on Monday morning and prepared to go to school only to hear that the students are protesting and the gates are closed. What is the hope of getting the said transcript before the end of the week when the registration ends? What happens to the N16,100 I used in procuring the Masters form. What do I do next?”
He said that the school is being unfair to the students. Those who want to move on cannot move on after graduating with good grades. He said some of them have been going and coming for months just to get the transcripts.
“Some got scholarships abroad but it got terminated when they were not able to provide transcripts. Some have money to further their studies abroad but they can’t because they have no transcripts. Some of us who are trying to further our education here can’t do that after almost two years because we lack transcripts. It’s quite disheartening and sad.
PLO Lumumba said: “The people with ideas have no power and the people with power have no ideas.’ That is very true. Not everything requires protests. They should know what they should do without being chased about for it.”
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A two weeks break has been suggested by the school management and the school is expected to resume back on the 14th of May if the suggestion is accepted. The aggreived graduates have threatened to embark on a protest of their own if nothing is done to address their issue before the school decides on a break.
Speaking with Godfrey Bakji, the school’s PRO, he said, “You may recall that the three month strike of ASUU caused a serious set back to a lot of academic calendars aside from peculiar internal issues. The institution barely submitted the list for NYSC enrollment.
The institution is working hard to ensure that such demands and others are met within the shortest possible time. FUOYE however regrets all the inconveniences occasioned by this unintentional delay.
