The vice-chancellor of an Osun State university has taken aim at parents who pay heavily for secondary school yet expect university education to cost nothing. He described the contradiction as troubling, arguing that families who fund private secondary schooling should not turn around and demand free tuition at the tertiary level. Universities, in his view, cannot run laboratories and pay staff if students contribute nothing. His comments land amid a running argument over funding in Nigerian higher education, where public institutions face chronic shortfalls and periodic strikes. Several public universities have raised fees in recent years, moves that provoked protests and pushed some state governments to step in. The vice-chancellor appears to be saying that contributions from families who can afford them would ease pressure on the system. Student groups and unions have long countered that government, not households, holds the primary duty to fund public universities. The argument is likely to continue as institutions weigh affordability against survival.