This was supposed to be my comment on @Princessbusayo article I read this morning dealing on some issues she thinks are peculiar with Nigeria universities, but while typing I discovered that it was almost longer than enough for an article.
I do not agree with most of your points, and it seems you didn't do proper research to know if most of these issues you raised here are only peculiar with Nigeria universities. I passed through the system, although things might not be the same as it was in my time, yet most are just still going the same way.
You said you want to believe Nigeria universities are the only places where acceptance fees are collected, which is only your assumption. You need to do a research for a sensitive topic of this nature so your writing will not be biased. Acceptance fees is not with Nigeria universities alone, it's a global practice in the higher institution system, even in America they do pay acceptance and it's also a non refundable practice.
Issue of textbooks, I don't think I have ever seen nor heard about where textbooks were included in the school fees. I think it's even better it's not included, considering the level of poverty in the country. I can tell you the truth, if textbooks are included in the school fees many students will not be able to pay the fee, and I don't think I would have been able to complete my studies back then. I think giving lecturers the autonomy to publish and sell textbooks to students makes it cheaper to acquire. Do you know how much one textbook of one of your course cost? Just try to find out and you will come back to appreciate the system you have now. Textbooks are never included in the school fees and not only in Nigeria. A list of books are issued in foreign universities and it's essential that a person pay for them upfront before starting out. That's the difference.
Talking about project, do you think you were going to have your supervisor running all over students to get their project done? He or she is your supervisor and not the one to help you find your facts and put two together to be four. Their duty is to evaluate what you present to them, and in most cases they have numbers of students they are dealing with. These are lecturers that has to teach a number of classes everyday, attend several board meetings or departments meetings. Consider them not a failure because they are humans. It's your project and not your supervisor's. If you are lucky enough your project might not even required you to go outside your campus and might not as well cost much except the cost for typing, printing and binding.
I remember in my time as a Town planning student, our project required a lot of financial input and also time consuming. I started by preparing questionnaires to get useful information from the public about the subject of the project I was dealing with. This questionnaires has to pass a lot of scrutiny before you can get it printed and set out for field trip to meet with the people living in the area where your project is focus on solving a problem. The information collected was then use to prepare the design and then the written report.
The supervisor has no hands in any of these jobs, you are only given a time frame to complete the jobs, and whenever you need the assistance of the supervisors you can contact them to guide you. Mind you, do not expect your supervisor to come looking for you, you are the one to go look for them.
On certificate collection, do you mean it has to be free? It has never been in any school system even in the kindergarten class. You pay money to collect your certificate anywhere, from first school leaving certificate, junior to secondary School leaving certificates money has always been paid to collect certificate. It cannot be different in the university, the only thing that is different is that the more you wait to collect your certificate the higher the amount of money you will have to pay when you decide to go get it from your university.
I don't know if it's the same with every higher institutions in Nigeria, my school gives five years after graduation before certificates are available for collection, and it was $10 about 5k Nigeria Naira the last I heard about five years ago. You can't expect things to remain same today.
You also wrote about awarding grades to students by lecturers in your article. This is not peculiar to Nigeria universities but a global phenomenal. Cheating is everywhere, humans will always be humans, and in a school environment with adults in question you can't think Less of that. People will always find a way to cheat and the problem is with the students and not the lecturers. It's the students who fails to study and instead chose to party when they should be reading, and at the end they are looking for a soft landing with the lecturers.
The girls offer their bodies in exchange for marks, the boys offer huge cash to buy grades. But I tell you the truth, there is no way a cheat can be better than a person who works hard to earn his or her due. The school system knows those who genuinely earned their grades and they'll by no means give award to a cheater. It's better not to be bothered about those who engaged in buying grades because you can't do anything about it, and even the school authority can't do anything about it except a thorough investigation is carried out.
Cheaters are everywhere and not just in Nigeria universities. Many in college today probably cheated in one way or the other. Some with a not-so-clever tricks like looking over someone else's shoulder during an exam, or copying their answers when they weren't looking; some even hired someone at the last minute to write their term paper! Cheating is not exclusive to Nigeria universities; in colleges around the world, it is estimated that at least half of all students cheat by taking some degree of unfair advantage on exams. Even in elementary school, kids are getting caught with notes hidden in their shoes or sticking their hands in the mouths of friends who are taking a test for them.
The use of virtual class or online classes is a new trend which was occasioned to the covid 19. I am not sure about that, because I don't have any of such experience. However, I still believe the system that makes students pay for WiFi wasn't a bad idea in the first place, and as circumstances changes operation also changes. Likely, you might get a refund for the payment. It can go the other way around as well, but all in all, none of the things you discussed are peculiar with Nigeria universities, they are the same everywhere.
Well, I think I made myself clear in my article that it is only for fun even though I know it isn't only in Nigeria alone. I just write for the fun of it since @Kristofferquincy tagged me when he wrote his some days ago and I found it to be fun and I wanted to share my own experience in school too.
In fact since I have gained admission into the University up till now, textbooks money have been included in our school fees and we must pay. There is another one they do add to it. Any student who fails to pay at the stipulated time, another charges would be included to it which they don't have a choice than to pay it. This is what is happening in my school that I just decided to share for fun only. Thanks for the clarification though.