BEHIND THE GLITCH: WHAT'S REALLY HAPPENING WITH OAU'S NEW E-PORTAL

BEHIND THE GLITCH: WHAT'S REALLY HAPPENING WITH OAU'S NEW E-PORTAL 

By Daniel Ajanaku, Goodness Olope & Adedunmola Famodun

A student logs in, hopeful. The interface is sleek, modern, a clear upgrade from what came before. Then the loading wheel spins. And spins. Minutes later, a course registration that should have taken seconds still hasn't gone through.

This has become a familiar story since Obafemi Awolowo University rolled out its Advanced E-Portal, the platform now handling course registration, fee payments, and result checking for thousands of students. The interface is undeniably better. But for many students, "better-looking" hasn't always meant "easier to use."

One student, speaking to The Awo Times, rated the portal 3 out of 10, citing frequent glitches and an inability to register courses or check results, issues already affecting their academics. Another student described a more immediate problem: an unpaid balance they simply couldn't push through the system, with exams approaching fast.

What's striking isn't just the frustration; it's how quietly it's being carried. Many students appear unsure of what they've actually completed on the E-portal, but few are asking questions out loud, whether because they don't know who to ask or assume the issue is theirs alone.

So The Awo Times went to find out: what is actually going on behind the portal, and is help on the way?

A 20-Year-Old System Finally Retires

According to Prof. Babajide Afolabi, the Director overseeing the university's ICT Directorate, the upgrade wasn't optional. The previous system had been running since 2006, more than two decades, on infrastructure that should have been replaced four times over.

"If you are operating on an operating system that is no longer supported and no longer backed up, if you have issues with it, you are on your own," the Director explained. Beyond the age of the system, there were security concerns too: vulnerabilities that left the old E-portal open to tampering.

The new system was also built to consolidate scattered services. Transcripts, Health Centre records, hostel information, and clearance processes are being pulled into one platform, so students eventually won't need to move between offices to get what they need. 

A staff advisory feature has also been introduced, allowing academic advisers to review and approve course registrations directly on the E-portal, something the old system couldn't support. 

The E-portal is now mobile-optimised as well, meaning students can register from their phones, and even Post-UTME applicants now use the same system.

Why It's Been Rocky

Much of the disruption, the Director said, comes down to two things layered on top of each other: a full data migration and a simultaneous curriculum overhaul.

Nigerian universities are transitioning from the Basic Minimum Academic Standard (BMAS) to the Core Curriculum Minimum Academic Standard (CCMAS), a change mandated nationally by the NUC across all 99 universities. 

Every Part One student at OAU is now on a curriculum different from the levels above them. But with 188 programmes campus-wide, the ICT Directorate couldn't migrate curricula on its own. Many Heads of Department, the Director said, weren't even aware they needed to load the new curriculum themselves.

A picture of the new E-portal

To address this, the Directorate has been moving faculty by faculty, training departments directly on the new E-portal.

 The Faculty of Education and Management Studies (EDM) and the College of Health Sciences have already been covered; the Faculty of Arts is next. There are also plans to walk student representatives through the system so they can help their peers navigate it.

On specific complaints: the Director said fee payment and course registration issues have largely been resolved, though not yet at full certainty. Some delays are deliberate, not accidental.

 International students who studied abroad for a year and already paid fees elsewhere need individual exemptions before they can register, a manual step that takes time.

Result processing is the current focus, with errors being corrected and full resolution expected within the next couple of weeks.

No Penalties for Now

Perhaps the most direct reassurance to come out of the interview: students will not be penalised for delays caused by the system itself.

"As long as I am here as the Director, I have told myself that if the reason for the delay is systemic or university-made, no student would be penalised," they said, adding that late registration deadlines, which would normally already be in effect, have been deliberately held back this semester to allow the new system to stabilise.

The Director compared the adjustment students are going through to switching from a manual car to an automatic, different controls, different instincts required, even if the destination is the same. "Teething issues are expected," they said. "It is how they are managed that is very, very important."

Where This Leaves Students

The technical explanations matter, but they don't erase what students are experiencing right now: blocked registrations, unresolved payments, and a system that doesn't yet feel intuitive.

 The Directorate's roadmap, faculty trainings, completed fee and registration fixes, upcoming result processing, suggests the rough patches are narrowing. But until students feel that improvement firsthand, scepticism is fair.

What may help most isn't just backend fixes. It's communication: clearer guidance on what's working, what isn't, and who to ask when something goes wrong. 

Several students said they often had no one to turn to when they were confused, highlighting a gap that could easily be addressed through orientation sessions or an accessible student support channel.

The Advanced E-Portal represents a genuine, overdue modernisation of how OAU manages student life. 

The bones of it, consolidated data, mobile access, staff advisory approval, point toward a system that will eventually make student life simpler, not harder. 

But "eventually" is doing a lot of work right now, and for students staring down exams with unresolved registrations, patience is wearing thin.

As the Director put it, "It is worth the effort. It is taking a lot of time, but the moment we get a good hang of it, we are all going to view it better."

The question for now is how long that "moment" takes, and how much OAU communicates along the way.