Public universities made N12 billion from academic transcript requests in 5 years despite frustrating rigorous process

Despite the tedious process of obtaining a transcript from Nigerian universities, the ivory towers have continued to rake in billions from the mass of Nigerian graduates seeking vital documents for new opportunities.

Findings showed that largely between 2018 and 2022, 12 universities earned a cumulative sum of N12.84 billion, charging graduates who want a copy of their transcript between N35,000 and N70,000, reports The Guardian.

The delay and high costs of sending transcripts are shifting the debate from why obtaining a transcript is excruciatingly difficult to who should have custody of it. Although no law emphatically gives universities custody over academic transcripts or denies graduates of the same, the institutions claim they keep the transcripts in their custody and issue them directly on request from institutions to forestall falsification.

Findings, however, showed that most foreign universities are more particular about submitting an authentic transcript, verifiable by the issuing institution than ‘who’ is submitting the transcript.

Indeed, most foreign universities now require prospective postgraduate students to scan and upload the transcript alongside other documents, implying that they expect the student to have a handy copy.

Amidst a growing outcry over the arduous process of obtaining transcripts from their alma mater, graduates are finding themselves at a loss. The consequences of this struggle are severe, with many forfeiting scholarships, fellowships, promotions, and even appointment confirmations.

As institutions grapple with the challenge of streamlining transcript processing and graduates bear the brunt of a turgid and tepid academic processing system, universities may be quietly doing brisk business.

The nightmarish process of obtaining a transcript from Nigerian universities begins with an application letter, but approval from the university registrar is a needlessly protracted process. It gets complicated with the requirement that payment must be in banks resident within the university campus.

The application Is then forwarded to the exams and records department, which, in most institutions, is just a big room with more dust than files. A single request for a transcript involves a large expenditure on transportation, accommodation, and monetary compensation for university staff efforts in digging the records, typing, and photocopying, among other things. In many cases, this robs graduates of deadline opportunities and financial resources channelled into a vain venture.

An analysis of records of the 12 public universities, examining their five academic sessions, number of graduates and the transcript fee of each institution, showed that over five years, between 60 and 70 per cent of the graduates applied for a transcript, at least once, from those institutions. The alma maters, therefore, made the estimated sum enough to automate the process for seamless services.

The Institutions are: Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, recording 81,181 graduates over the last five years; University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), 59,259; Niger Delta University (NDU), 39,457; University of Ibadan (UI), 35,272; University of Lagos (UNILAG), 68,619; National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), 126,579; University of Ilorin (UNILORIN), 57,282; Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO), 10,009; Nnamdi Azikiwe University (NAU), Awka, 32,175; University of Calabar (UNICAL), 42,120; University of Benin (UNIBEN), 52,855, and Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), 34,874.

Based on the average, a breakdown of the amount raked in by the 12 institutions showed that ABU with 48,708 applicants made N2.43 billion at the rate of N50,000 per transcript request; UNN with 35,555 made N1.24 billion at the rate of N35,000 per application; NDU with 25,647 made N1.92 billion from an average of N75,000 per transcript request; UI charges an average of N35,000, and by 21,163 applicants to made N740.70 million; UNILAG with 34,309 made N1.2 billion from N35,000 per transcript request; and NOUN with 75,947 raked in N1.89 billion from N25,000 charged on each transcript.

UNILORIN with 34,369 applicants generated N1.37 billion, charging N40,000 per transcript; FUTO with 10,009 applicants raked in N700.63 million from charging N40,000 on each request; NAU with 19,305 made N965.25 million from N50,000 on every request; UNICAL with 25,272 also generated N1.2 billion from N50,000 per applicant; UNIBEN with 31,713 made N1.5 billion, also on N50,000 on every applicant; while OAU with 20,924 applicants generated N784.65 million, charging N37,000 each.

This potential source of revenue streaming from transcript fees could help bolster the meagre financial allocations to federal universities.

In the 2024 appropriation, the N2.18 trillion budgeted for the education sector is N390 billion higher than 2023’s N1.79 trillion, with N1.23 trillion allocated to the Federal Ministry of Education and its agencies, N700 billion to the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) and N251.47 billion to the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC).

In the budget, UNN received the lion’s share of N36.6 billion, followed by UNICAL with N29.5 billion and ABU with N29.2 billion, including NAU, N26.3 billion; UNIBEN: N24.2 billion; UI, N23.4 billion; University of Maiduguri, N22.3 billion; UNIPort: N19.6 billion; and UNILAG: N19.4 billion.

Others are OAU, N17.1 billion; BUK, N17 billion; Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO) N16.8 billion; UNIJOS, N16.2 billion; UNIUYO N15.6 billion; and NOUN, N14.6 billion.

Beyond the time it takes to process a transcript, the document has become an institution’s revenue source.

A graduate of a Nigerian university applying for five different scholarships concurrently, for instance, with the hope of winning at least one, would be made to pay five times to the same university for each transcript application.

This way, graduates have to keep navigating a web of unending payments or halt aspirations that require transcripts.

For instance, local transcript processing and delivery rates at FUTO were updated to range from N25,000 to N30,000. The first foreign issuance is pegged between N50,000 and N70,000, while subsequent issuance is between N25,000 and N42,500.

At UNN, the rates were hiked a few years ago to N20,000 and N35,000 for local and international transcript delivery, respectively, from the previous N1,250 and N2,500.

UNIBEN charges N20,000 and N50,000 for local and international processing, respectively. The situation is not different at UNILAG: the application fee is N10,000, while local and international payments are between N20,000 and N35,000, respectively.

At UI, local processing is N25,000, while international is N35,000. OAU pegs its local processing to N27,500, while international is from N37,500.

ABU charges N25,000 for local usage, while international is N50,000; NDU local is N30,000, while outside Nigeria is N75,000. NOUN charges 25,000; FUOYE charges N25,000 for local and N50,000 for foreign; FUT Minna is N25,000 within Nigeria, N35,000 within Africa and N50,000 for other continents.

UNILORIN is between N25,000 and N40,000; Federal University, Gashua, transcript processing is N25,000 within Nigeria, while international processing ranges from N40,000.

UNIUYO: ₦30,000; UDUS charges ₦25,000 for local and N40,000 for international transcripts. Federal University, Otuoke, charges between N25,000 and N45,000 depending on location, NAU: N35,000 to N50,000; UNIPORT: N35,000 to N55,000; UNICAL: 30,000 to N50,000; FUPRE charges between N30,000 and N45,000, while at Alex Ekwueme University, Ndufu-Alike, Ebonyi: Internal transcript is N30,000 while international is N50,000

According to the National Universities Commission (NUC), there are 62 federal universities, 63 state universities and 148 private universities. If 500 students graduate yearly from state universities and pay to obtain a transcript at the rate of N10,000, the schools will make N315,000,000. In 62 federal universities, N310,000,000 will be generated yearly) and N740,000,000 by 148 private universities. The three groups of universities (273 institutions; 125 state-owned and 148 privately-owned) could earn a total of N1,365,000,000 in one year from charging graduates to pay for transcripts.

Despite the potential constant stream of revenue that academic transcripts offer, Nigerian universities and polytechnics admit nearly two million students each academic year, producing about 300,000 graduates who continually seek worldwide exposure through admission to foreign institutions; many frequently look for scholarship options to help defray the cost of high-quality education.

However, a broken system that unnecessarily delays the processing of academic transcripts has prevented many who want to further their education abroad from the chance to do so.

At the end of each semester in institutions of higher learning, students write examinations on the courses they have registered for, and their grades are computed.

According to a Nigerian scholar, Victoria Oyekunle, in some universities, the scores and grades are entered into a results sheet, and the cumulative grade point average (CGPA) is calculated and recorded manually.

She noted that these records are kept in paper files, carefully arranged into folders and stored on shelves.

“Information technology has revolutionised major aspects of our economy, and tedious tasks that once took hours or days can now be completed in minutes or seconds with the introduction of computerised systems,” Oyekunle said.

She cited the student transcript generation system as a prime example of how information technology has transformed academic record-keeping.

After graduation, students are provided with a transcript that details their academic records, including courses taken, grades received, and degrees conferred. The manual approach to transcript generation, however, has several drawbacks.

Oyekunle also mentioned that it is relatively easy for an unauthorised party to tamper with the transcripts, and detecting such changes can be challenging. Additionally, the process can be time-consuming and labour-intensive, requiring sufficient manpower to generate, verify, and distribute the transcripts, especially when students transfer between institutions.

To address these issues, Dr Lanre Afolabi, an education consultant, suggested streaming modern technology and simplifying the computation of students’ academic results.

By automating the process, Afolabi noted that access to the results becomes faster and the overall process more efficient.

According to him, a dependable system with an effective and straightforward application and procurement process for academic transcripts and robust methods for authenticating and verifying transcript integrity can significantly improve student records management.

But while Nigerian universities are caught in this endless circus, their peers in other African countries have moved on, as students are handed their certificates and transcripts upon graduation.

To ease the transfer of transcripts to institutions that require them, some firms have created electronic transcripts and document exchange solutions that work in collaboration with university management to accelerate transcript collection.

Most federal universities claimed to have upgraded to this sort of digitisation in recent times, saying only those who graduated before the digital migration were likely to experience minor hitches in accessing their transcripts. Yet, the problems persist.

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