Short attendance bars 150 students

Students protest for not being able to sit in exams over short attendance after paying hefty semester fees.

ISLAMABAD: About 150 students of media studies at Ripha International University (RIU) Rawalpindi protested for being prohibited from sitting in their exams on the “pretext of short attendance”.

The students of undergraduate/postgraduate media studies, who did not wish to be named, said they had even paid hefty fees for their semester.

“First off, the university administration raised our semester fees without prior notice. Later, they said whoever doesn’t submit it would not be allowed to sit for exams,” the students said.

The fees was raised after changing the status of BA and MA degrees to BSc and MSc and alteration in the curriculum. Some students claimed that the teachers of the respective subjects were absent from the university after the midterm and the new courses remained uncovered.

After paying the fees, of up to Rs 0.1 million for some students, they were ready to take the exams scheduled from January 17. However, they were told without prior notice that they could not take the exam because of shortage in attendance.

“This was shocking for all of us as we did not miss a single class,” students claimed.

The students said they went to the Vice Chancellor of the University Dr Anis Ahmad to lodge their complaints. After waiting outside his office,  their concerns being unheard, they went out to protest.

“There is no such incident in my knowledge,” he said.

The students said they will go on a strike if their woes are not heard by the authorities.

“Final year students will suffer from missing their exams,” students added.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 18^th, 2011.