Petrina Francis, Education Reporter
PEREIRA
MORE THAN 800 full-time and part-time undergraduate students on the Mona campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI) could be deregistered by next Wednesday.
The university said that the students had outstanding fees and had not meet the September 30 deadline for full tuition payment.
Joe Pereira, the UWI's deputy principal, told The Gleaner yesterday that there were just over 300 part-time students who had outstanding fees, but the institution is in the process of adjusting the students' registration by reducing their credit limit and allowing them to pursue the number of credits that they had paid for. The deputy principal explained that if students had not paid enough tuition fees to cover a credit, they would be sent on leave of absence until the next semester.
CHECKING PENDING LOANS
Additionally, Mr. Pereira said the UWI administration is checking to see if the more than 500 full-time pupils had student loans pending. He noted, too, that the university was making provision to allow students who paid their fees in full this week to continue courses.
Mr. Pereira told The Gleaner that since the university embarked on the deregistration policy more students are being compliant. He said that some 50 students who have 'exceptional circumstances' have made arrangements with the UWI to be allowed to continue until their fees are paid.
The new payment policy at the UWI was announced by the Financial and General Purposes Committee last academic year. Under the new policy, students are given until the last working day in September to pay for Semester One and the last working day in January for Semester Two.
But this did not go down well with hundreds of students who demonstrated against the administration's decision last October, by padlocking the main entrances to the university, forcing classes to be cancelled.
More than 900 students were deregistered from the UWI last academic year.
NOTE: Credits are a system of points which add up to classify degrees, e.g., first class or second class.
