Srinagar: The University of Kashmir (KU) authorities Wednesday revised the examination fee of “mercy chance, division improvement” in view of the concerns raised by the students.
The decision comes two days after Greater Kashmir reported that KU was charging Rs 2600 examination fee per paper, which the candidates had to deposit online through ‘debit cards, credit cards, Rupay card, and UPI’.
Greater Kashmir highlighted the plight of the students who had raised their concern that charging Rs 2600 per paper was “loot”.
However, KU Vice Chancellor Prof Nilofer Khan had assured that the matter would be looked into, keeping in view the larger interest of the students.
On Wednesday, a KU spokesman said that the “mercy chance and division improvement” was a special category examination conducted by KU with the sole objective of securing the future prospects of the aspirants who wanted to either complete their long-pending degrees or improve their examination performance of their previously-completed degree programmes.
“The special examination entails more financial implications on the varsity. For some subjects, KU receives only one application, which involves the cost of paper-setting, conduct, evaluation and other logistics equal to multiple applicants in other subjects,” he said. “In view of this, the examination fee was previously fixed at Rs 5000 per paper, which was reduced to Rs 2600 per paper on the basis of recommendations of a duly-constituted committee.”
However, the KU spokesman said that in view of the concerns expressed by some students intending to appear in multiple papers, the KU VC, as a special case re-considered the matter and fixed the fee at Rs 2600 per candidate instead of Rs 2600 per subject.
“The fee was fixed on the basis of fresh recommendations by the committee. KU is conscious of its responsibility towards the society and the youth,” he said.
The KU spokesman said that the special examinations entail additional financial resources on the varsity, leading to the constraint of charging a reasonable amount as fee.
Notably, the link for online submission of fee would be opened afresh and notified accordingly.