LUMS claps back on students’ protest on Twitter against fee hike

Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) on Monday, after students’ protest on fee hike on social media, reacted to the move and clarified that it was decided before the coronavirus outbreak in the country.

According to the reports, the official statement of the varsity came when people were protesting on Twitter against a 41 percent increase in tuition fees.

According to the statement of LUMS’ Vice-Chancellor Dr. Arshad Ahmed, the decision was taken before the Covid-19 outbreak in the country.

He stated that the increment was “entirely consistent with prior years and took into account extraordinary increases in inflation, energy costs, and currency devaluation.”

He further said that the hike determined for 2020 was 13pc, which will be monitored to determine the next fee card.

“Furthermore, previously, a per semester blanket fee was being charged for students taking between 12 to 20 credit hours,” he added.

“This fee is now [being] calculated on per credit hour basis which will increase the semester fees for some and decrease it for others [depending on the number of registered credit hours],” the statement said.

The VC said the current fee has been calculated on a per credit hour basis which will increase the semester fee for some and decrease for others.

“The important point is that the total fee to meet graduation requirements does not change as a result of the shift to a per credit hour basis. One of the reasons for the shift is to discourage students from taking course overloads which negatively impacts their learning,” added the VC.

The VC further said that the LUMS fee covers a fraction of the total costs.

“As a not-for-profit university, gifts from donors, trustees, etc. helps to subsidize one out of three students,” he added.