From payment deferment to monthly installments, institutes are offering varied options to students amid COVID-19

Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, many institutes are providing varied options to the students for fee payment. Read the article to know more.

From deferment of payments, monthly instalments to quarterly fees, colleges and universities and business schools have been offering varied options to the students, recognizing that many of their families might be going through a phase of low income or no income because of the COVID-19 outbreak.

With the nationwide lockdown extended till May 3, 2020, many admission schedules have been disrupted and the resumption might take several weeks, according to institutions. As such, they have to weigh alternatives to keep the cash flow without burdening the students, as one might never know what the other’s family is going through in times of one of the worst pandemics in the history.

Dheeraj Sharma, director of the Indian Institute of Management Rohtak, said, “We’ve told the students that they need not pay the fee until they join the campus. This means a deferment of the quarterly fee of around Rs 3 lakh.” He also said that they have reduced the one-time registration fee by s 50,000, a 33% saving for the students.

The Mudra Institute of Communication Ahmedabad (MICA) said that until last year they used to charge a yearly fee of around Rs 9 lakh, but now they have decided to split it into 4 instalments. Talking about the same, Ruchi Tewari, a professor at MICA and head of admission at the institute, said, “This is a time of crisis. We have to ensure that none of our students suffers.” She further said that they have decided to spread the fee into four instalments with the initial amount being reduced to Rs 2 lakh.

Harivansh Chaturvedi, alternate president of the Education Promotion Society of India, a federation of private colleges and universities, said that that the technical education regulator has advised institutions not to insist on fees upfront. He also said that they are exploring if EMIs (equated monthly instalments) or bi-monthly instalments will be better options for both students and institutions.

As many as 84% of people, who have been surveyed by the economic policy think tank National Council of Applied Economic Research said that their income was hit by the lockdown. While casual workers, business families have reported maximum income loss. Every two in five salaried employees said that they faced economic loss because of the pandemics in the last two weeks.

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