‘Colleges, varsities should not insist on exam fee’

The University Grants Commission (UGC) has urged colleges and universities not to insist on payment of semester or examination fee by students.

The advisory, issued on Wednesday, comes in the wake of grievances received from students and parents, according to Rajnish Jain, secretary. The Commission had launched a COVID-19 related grievance forum on its portal for students to air their concerns. A taskforce of the UGC is monitoring the portal.

“We received grievances from students and parents stating that universities and colleges are insisting upon immediate payment of annual/semester tuition fee, examination fee, etc. They have represented that due to the financial hardship during the lockdown, they are not in a position to pay the fee.”

Mr. Jain has said that considering “the extraordinary difficult circumstances, universities and colleges may consider the matter regarding payment of annual/semester fee, tuition fee, examination fee, etc. sympathetically and if feasible, may consider offering alternative payment options to students till the situation returns to normal.”

The UGC has said that if necessary, if individual requests are received from students, universities and colleges may be considerate, “keeping in view the present COVID-19 pandemic.”

The UGC has also urged colleges and universities to launch a grievance redress forum on its website before May 30 to address students’ concerns during the pandemic.

State universities generally begin their semester in November and by April 1, the end-semester exams are held. Arts and science universities had already collected the exam fees and were in the process of issuing hall tickets.

University of Madras registrar R. Srinivasan, said that the institution was in the process of issuing hall tickets online when the country went under lockdown. “The issue of students not being able to pay exam fees doesn’t crop up. We had already started our practicals and the semester exams were to begin on April 1,” he said.

Anna University, an affiliating institution for over 500 colleges in the State, had only started preparations for the end-semester examinations, which are held in May. “We had asked students to register online so that we know what questions papers we must prepare,” said an official.

University vice-chancellor M.K. Surappa said, “The last thing is putting students in financial difficulty. There has to be an evaluation process. We don’t want to burden the students by asking them questions from portions that have not been covered. We have to be fair to the student community and the parents. We can even relax the last date by which the exam fee must be paid.”