‘How will we pay full fees amid this crisis?’
A large group of private university students are demanding remission of tuition fees for the next semester, as their guardians are financially struggling due to the ongoing coronavirus crisis.
They are also saying activities of next semester should be delayed until the pandemic ends and everything returns to normalcy.
Most private university students come from middle and lower-middle-class families, which are struggling with money. Burdening them with payment of tuition fees will add more stress to an already stressful situation, they said.
"How will our parents pay fees when their earning sources have disappeared? Only government workers are getting salaries; the rest are either not getting wages or receiving reduced salaries," said Anny Sen, an organiser of Besarkari Biswabidyalaya Chhatra Oikya.
The alliance is campaigning for the remission online. They have sent a charter of demands to the prime minister, education minister and University Grants Commission (UGC) via email.
Bangladesh Students Union (BSU) and other organisations held a human chain maintaining social distance in the capital on May 9, for remission of tuition fees for at least one upcoming semester.
Polash Datta, project lead of independent research organisation Dataful, said in a study, they found 84 per cent private university students said the pandemic has impacted their family income.
Furthermore, 43 per cent of students want the next semester to be delayed by one to six months.
The study was done on 317 students of 24 private universities via online between April 24 to May 3.
Private University Students Unity (PUSU) and Facebook group-based platform Private University Students Alliance of Bangladesh (PUSAB), both demanded remission of tuition fees.
Nishat Sunny, an organiser of PUSU, said it is too early to enrol students for the next semester.
PUSAB proposed a student should at least get 25 per cent waiver on the amount of tuition fee for the next semester. Financially struggling students should get 75-100 per cent waivers.
If the new semester is conducted online, a student should pay 40 per cent of the fee.
A UGC directive issued on Thursday said all private universities can hold admission tests in June, and the next semester will begin in July.
Universities should not pressurise guardians and students for tuition and other fees during the pandemic, and should waive and reduce fees for financially struggling students, or provide an option to pay in instalments, it added.
Sheikh Kabir Hossain, chairperson of Association of Private Universities of Bangladesh, said if students get remission, authorities will not be able to run the universities and pay teachers and staff.
"The government can help us; it can pay tuition fees on behalf of students. We need to enrol students for financial solvency and to smoothly run the institutes," he added.
There are 105 government approved universities, and of them, 96 are currently carrying out academic activities. According to the latest (2018) UGC annual report, there were some 3,62,000 students in these universities, with about 16,000 full- and part-time teachers and 12,960 staffers.
All educational institutions have been closed since March 17, and the government has now extended the closure till May 31 to stem further spread of Covid-19.
On April 27, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said all the institutions may stay closed till September if the situation does not improve.
The government has kept almost all offices and factories, barring few garment and other export-oriented units, closed since March 24, and the closure will continue till Saturday, as of now.
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