Mumbai: The Mumbai University’s decision of imposing a 50% hike in examination fee to enhance payments to moderators has not gone down well with under-graduate and post-graduate students. They feel the money should come from the varsity budget and not from their pockets.
The decision to impose a hike was formulated owing to an increase in administrative and exam expense, M.A. Khan, registrar of the university, told The Hindu . He said the cost of checking each paper was ₹6 earlier, but has now increased to ₹15.20. “Earlier, the [exam] fee for undergraduate students was ₹600. Now, it will go up to ₹1,000. For postgraduate students, it will increase to around ₹1,200, from about ₹700 to ₹800 at present.”
For some students, this is a superfluous financial burden. A second year Bachelor of Arts students from Ruparel College, Matunga, said, “If they increase the exam fees [economically backward students] will not be able to afford it; ₹500 and ₹2,000 is a big difference. Students often work to pull themselves through college”
A student from Goregaon, who recently lost her father, said, “I want to study, but my mother, who works as a domestic help, cannot support me a lot financially.”
Vidyarthi Bharthi, a students body, is planning to meet the university’s vice chancellor, Sanjay Deshmukh, next week to discuss the issue.
