Students slam Pondicherry University's demand for payment of full semester fees

PUDUCHERRY: Students and parents have condemned Pondicherry University's direction to them to pay full semester fees despite the continuing Covid-19 pandemic.
Representatives of students' forums termed the university's direction as “baseless and insensitive. ” They pointed out that even private schools had been directed by the Madras high court to collect only 75% of the tuition fees and that too in two equal instalments as people had lost their livelihood due to lockdown during the pandemic.
They regretted that a central university was insisting on them to pay full fees without extending sports, library and computer facilities.
"The demand is inadmissible because none of the university amenities are under use now. We have no access to classrooms or labs and students are at their homes. Why should the students currently pay for unused facilities," asked students council president Parichay Yadav and secretary V Kuralanban in a joint statement.
They pointed out that people had lost their jobs and faced wage cuts and would not be able to pay fees fully. "We are all facing a pandemic which has crippled the economy. Forcing the students to pay a huge amount as semester fees now, that too by a public educational institution, is unacceptable," the statement said.
They urged the university not to pressurise the students to pay the full fees. "We hope that the university will take a decision that, besides being practical, is morally right," they said.