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Panjab University waives reappear fee for students with medical issues
The Student Organisation of India had demanded the fee waiver through a protest outside the PU administration block last week, following which PU vice-chancellor (V-C) Renu Vig had constituted a committee to look into the issue
In a move that will benefit around 1,300 students on the campus and at affiliated colleges, Panjab University has waived the reappear fees for students who could not take exams due to medical reasons.
The Student Organisation of India (SOI) had demanded the fee waiver through a protest outside the PU administration block last week, following which PU vice-chancellor (V-C) Renu Vig had constituted a committee to look into the issue.
Chaired by controller of examinations Jagat Bhushan, the committee has now decided that for the December 2023 session, students, who missed the final and intermediate semester exams due to medical issues, may be allowed to reappear in exams without charging the examination fees.
Those who have already submitted the fees may be refunded on written request of the student through the chairperson of the department or college principal, the panel decided.
To check the misuse of medical chance examinations, which is obvious due to the exponential increase of medical cases in the last few semesters as per the committee, the committee has recommended that fresh eligibility conditions for any medical cases can be approved by a suitable committee consisting of medical specialists.
A committee member confirmed that there are around 1,300 students who will benefit from this scheme, but this exemption is only for this session.
Gurnoor Singh Kanda, an LLB student and chairman of SOI, PU, who is part of the committee constituted by the V-C, said, “It is unjust that students who have already paid the fees once have to pay more on top of dealing with their illness.” He had gone on a hunger strike outside the PU administration block for three days over the issue.
