The University of Medical Sciences, Ondo town, Ondo State has announced the reduction of school fees for the students of the institution.
Also, the institution said it had commenced a scholarship scheme tagged, ‘NextGens’ as part of the means to assist the students.
This was contained in a statement issued by the Public Relations Officer of the university, Mr Tope Akintayo, and made available to our Correspondent on Monday.
According to the statement, the scheme was designed to support the development of the next generation of innovation-minded young scientists.
Speaking on the development, the Vice-Chancellor of the university, Prof. Adesegun Fatusi, stated that the initiative would begin from the current admission exercise for the 2022/23 academic session, which will run for three years in the first instance.
He also explained that “the initiative entails a 45 per cent discount in school fees for students who gain admission into UNIMED to study chemistry, physics, mathematics, statistics, animal and environmental health science, community health science, and human nutrition and dietetics.”
Explaining further, the VC said the school fees for the students, either indigene of Ondo State or non-indigene, in the listed programmes would only be N100,000 only per academic session and the scholarship would be tenable till graduation as far as the students maintain a minimum grade of second class lower in each session.
He stated further that the graduates with first class or second class upper are eligible for a 50 per cent school fees discount to study the specialised areas of health sciences such as medical physics, environmental physics, medicinal chemistry, analytical and environmental chemistry, molecular biology, health statistics and mathematical biology.
“Science is the bedrock of development, and the future of health development nationally and globally lies largely in advancing the foundational basic sciences. Also, COVID-19 has demonstrated the need for Nigeria to significantly grow its scientific abilities. Our goal is to provide a platform and an avenue for the advancement of science in our country by growing and supporting innovation-minded and science-inclined young people.
“We also see this as an opportunity to support the education of highly intelligent and interested candidates who may have limited economic support to pursue a career in these important fields,” Fatusi stated.