Janet Akanbi (not real name) was ecstatic when she was offered provisional admission to study Islamic and Common Law at the Lagos State University (LASU). However, seven months down the line, she has been told to either change the course or lose the admission.

When the 18-year-old got the admission offer via LASU’s website in December 2020, she instinctively paid the acceptance fee, half the tuition fee and the medical fee, all totalling N105,000.

Things started taking a turn when she couldn’t print her admission letter from the JAMB portal in order to begin her registration. She kept on refreshing the page for months amidst constant consolation from the people around her that the portal was known for such errors and that it would be resolved soon.

“I was unable to print my admission letter on the JAMB portal even after accepting the offer,” Akanbi said. “I refreshed the page several times but nothing changed. I also noticed that my status reflected ‘Not Admitted’. While this was going on, other incoming students offered similar admissions were able to print their admission letters and had started the registration process.”

Akanbi became agitated when the school announced that registration was only going to last another two weeks because the academic session had been scheduled to start on August 2, 2021.

“I eventually decided to visit the admissions office in the company of my mother two weeks ago to know what was going on. One of the officers we met decided to check their records and was able to confirm that I was indeed initially offered admission,” she told FIJ.

“He, however, said that the school had admitted more than the required number of law students for the academic year and had taken a decision to reduce it. This means the reduction has affected people like me and I was advised to go for a change of course or forfeit the admission.”

Apart from the trauma of the short-lived joy of admission and the feeling of loss over her nonrefundable payments, Janet found the failure of the school to issue a prior notice on the admission anomaly quite distasteful. She stated that 91 other students were also affected by this action, meaning the university had collected a total of N9,660,000 from them in nonrefundable fees.

“It is very unfair that the school would hold on to such a huge decision for so long without carrying prospective students that fall into that category along. There was no official information whatsoever on their website. Why would they give us joy only to snatch it from us and replace it with misery?” She lamented.

FIJ made several calls to the phone number on the official website of LASU for comments, but they were unanswered.