MADURAI
Increase in fees for examination and degree certificates by Madurai Kamaraj University for its students and those from affiliated colleges since last academic year has become a burden on students hailing from poor economic background, a section of academicians has opined.
The issue resonated in the Academic Council meeting of the university held last week, where a few members highlighted the problem and appealed to the university administration to reduce the fees.
S. Nehru, Principal, Mannar Thirumalai Naicker College, who is also an Academic Council member, said that paying roughly ₹ 1,000 per semester as examination fee was unaffordable for a large number of students.
“We must take into account the socio-economic profile of the students the university is catering to before sharply increasing the fees,” he said.
For instance, the examination fee for a theory paper for undergraduate courses was increased from around ₹ 75 to ₹ 120 last year and later reduced to ₹ 110 after opposition. The same for postgraduate courses has been increased to ₹ 175 while for M. Phil it stood at ₹ 500.
Similarly, the fees for obtaining degree certificates were also hiked last year with ₹ 2,400 now being charged for obtaining Ph. D certificate.
The Principal of another affiliated college, speaking on anonymity, said that apart from the increase, students were also charged twice on certain occasions for obtaining degree certificates.
“Convocation fee and the fee for degree certificate are collected from every student during the final semester. However, if a student fails to clear all the papers and gets the degree only in the subsequent year, he or she is asked to pay the fees again,” he said.
While the university has defended the increase by citing that the fees were on a par if not lower than any other universities in the State, Mr. Nehru, however, argued that there must be transparency in fixing the fees.
“Let the university work out the cost per student per paper and make it public. Examination fees must not be an avenue for making profit,” he said.
When contacted, Vice-Chancellor M. Krishnan said that the approach of working out the cost on a per student basis was not viable since the university catered to more than a lakh students. “If anyone does a comparative analysis and informs us that we are charging more than other universities, we will certainly consider reducing the fees,” he said.
On the issue of students with arrears having to pay twice for degree certificates, he said that it will be immediately addressed.