Teachers’ body to meet Minister to sort out Tiruvalluvar University exam fee row

The association’s Cheyyar Government College unit head Dr G Balasubramanian told DT Next, “repeated attempts to get an appointment to meet VC Dr Senthamarai and explain the varied issues affecting the varsity and its constituent colleges proved useless and so we are forced to explain our issues to the Minister himself.”

The latest controversy is over the varsity issuing a circular ordering all colleges to collect exam fees for the first year UG and PG second semester on or before June 10 without fine. The date is June 14 for remittance of fees with fine, sources added.

College teachers on condition of anonymity said, “we wonder whether the VC is aware of the pandemic as she has ordered fee collection when classes have not been held for more than a year. Another point is that with public transport being stopped by the government due to the pandemic it will result in many students being unable to come to the college to pay the fees. And even if they do so, most colleges lack non-teaching staff to collect and remit such fees in banks. Hence this work has also to be undertaken by teaching staff.”

What aggrieves teaching staff is that the Tiruvalluvar University last year collected fees twice for the same exam and also has a habit of collecting exam fees along with admission fees. “Usually exam fees are collected only about a month before the examinations,” teachers said.

The university staff also wonder why the varsity failed to make arrangements for online payment as then it would have been easier for students to remit their fees directly into the varsity account during the pandemic.