For the students of 2020-2021 academic session of Chittagong University (CU) the transportation fee and the fixed fee for the rent of the hall in case of the residential students have been waived recently.
According to the decision taken by the university authority, most students will not be able to reap the benefit of this waiver in this current academic year. Some of the students will be covered by this waiver next year while, some other student will have to wait two more years to avail the waiver of fees. The reason behind this dilemma is that most students of the university are at least one session behind in their academic session due t the Corona Crisis. Moreover, there is intense session clutter in many sections as well.
CU students are unhappy with this decision of the authorities. They complained, they are facing the crisis this year, so it is not rational to waive the fees in the future. They demand that since the crisis is happening this year, the fees should be waived now.
Md Masood Rana, a student of 2017-2018 session of the Department of Management at the university said, “Many students were financially disadvantaged during this pandemic period. So we are asking to waive this year’s fees. If the fees are waived next year it will not be of much use to us.”
In this regard, CU Chhatra League General Secretary Iqbal Hossain Tipu said, many students are now in financial crisis due to the Corona pandemic. In such a case, the issue of remission should be included in this year’s fees collection. Many university teachers are also in favor of this demand of the students. Professor Zakir Hossain, former president of CU Teachers' Association, told Bangladesh Post that the issue of amnesty should be considered from the time the corona started. Those who are in trouble will have to suffer because of this.
Acting Registrar of the University Professor SM Monirul Hasan said, “We will raise this issue in the next syndicate meeting. I can't make the decision alone without taking the opinion of everyone concerned.”
He added if the syndicate decides to waive the fee this year, those who have already paid the fee will be reimbursed.