Pune: MIT WPU Now Says Will Refund International Tour Fees Based On ‘Merit’

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Mihir Shete
Pune, 31st May 2021: Dr Vishwanath Karad MIT World Peace University (WPU), Kothrud, on Monday informed the University Grants Commission (UGC) that it will give ‘third option’ to students regarding the refund of the International Study Tour (IST) fees. However, it will be on a case to case basis, stated Dr Prashant Dave, Registrar of MIT WPU.

The MIT WPU has engineering courses since 2017. It has proposed to students (of first batch called Golden Scholar Batch) that they will be taken on IST at reputed universities like Harvard, Oxford and other institutions. For this, the students have paid Rs two lakh.

However, due to the pandemic, students could not be taken on the tour in their fourth term and will graduate in June 2021. Hence, the parents have demanded that the amount which was paid for IST over the past three years, should be adjusted in the tuition fees for the fourth year. They have also agreed to pay the remaining fees of Rs 60,000. Even after that, the university has rejected their plea and demanded that they pay full academic fees along with IST charges.

On May 28, 2021, in a letter to all students, MIT WPU Vice-Chancellor NT Rao said, “We are happy to inform that now the BTech Final students for the academic year 2020-21 can complete the IST in the next three years as per the schedule announced by MIT-WPU (tentatively during summer or winter breaks) taking due preferences from the students. Alternatively, students who may find this an unfeasible proposition due to various reasons may opt for certificate programmes (a basket of courses offered under Management/ Engineering and Technology streams) specially customized for MIT-WPU and offered by highly ranked global universities of the world, instead of the IST. The fee of the proposed customized programme shall be included in the total programme fee payable towards BTech and no extra cost shall be charged or levied on students.”

Nevertheless, parents call this decision irrelevant to the current situation and bizarre. In a letter given to the Dean and Registrar of the university, parents had requested MIT WPU to adjust the IST fees into the academic fees.

“MIT WPU’s ‘able’ management suddenly sent an e-mail to the students of engineering final year and asked them to join a meeting which was scheduled just after 30 minutes of receiving the mail. In the meeting, the university’s management gave two illogical options to the students which are also mentioned in the letter received on May 28, 2021,” said a parent requesting anonymity.

“MIT has taken money from students for overseas tours so that BTech students can get work experience in foreign companies during the fourth year. But since the students cannot go on a trip due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the parents’ organization has demanded that the money taken for the tour during the three years should be treated as a fourth-year fee or the fee should be reimbursed to those who have paid the full fees. But that has been denied by the MIT administration.

When Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar was in Pune, some parents and students visited him and complained that the results of the students who did not pay the fee for the fourth year were retained,” informed parents’ representative Mohan Chaudhary.

Members of the parents’ association also said that many of the students have been placed in MNCs and some are opting for post-graduation and competitive exams. Thus, the decision of letting students go for the international tour in the next three years is unfeasible and illogical. They also said that the university is charging them Rs 2 lakh for the courses which are otherwise available on online educational platforms like Coursera or Edx at Rs 1,000.

The parents had also complained to the UGC. In a reply on Monday MIT WPU’s Registrar Dave stated, “Finally, we also agree that if any student or their families are facing any financial hardship due to loss of job/business during pandemic or constraints due to plans for higher studies or job placements we would review such cases and basis the merit we would consider adjusting the due fees or execute refunds as deemed necessary on case to case basis.”

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