The Vice-Chancellor of the Central University of Tamil Nadu on Monday informed the students that they will not get a fee waiver for the upcoming semester. Previously, the students had written emails to the VC Dr Karpaga Kumaravel and the UGC, seeking a waiver of the fees for amenities, considering that the semester will be held online. They also sought the university to waive off the exam fee as the students had apparently paid the same for the last semester and the exams were called off, owing to COVID.

"When the request for a fee waiver was made by you, I presented your representation in the appropriate meetings of the Statutory Bodies and your request was sympathetically and extensively discussed in length for an hour. However, considering the financial position of our University and taking stock of the fact that there was no precedence in other universities, it was resolved to act on par with other Universities. When consulted, none of the Central Universities has waived the semester or exam fee. In the same line, we were also not able to give any fee waiver," reads Kumaravel's email.

Owing to COVID, the university had initially decided to conduct its semester examinations online. The decision was revoked after the students raised their voices against it and were instead assessed based on their previous grades. "At CUTN, based on the requests from the students, the CUTN has decided to evaluate the students for results, based on their continuous assessment and previous
semester CGPA. This has been done and the result has been announced. This cannot be done without collecting course credit fee," reads the email.

At the same time, he added that the university will implement fee waivers if the UGC or higher bodies recommend the same.