Lahore University of Management Sciences is one of the most prestigious institutions in the country so naturally any misstep from the institution is scrutinized at a higher standard. Something similar has happened again when the University increased fees without consulting with students prior to the increase.

While the entire world is under a pandemic and going through an economic crisis, LUMS made a fee hike by what some are claiming to be as much as 41%

According to students of the institution, they were notified about this change via an email, without much of a time frame given to discuss the matter. Upon inquiring University officials they were given the details of the calculation that was used to initiate the fee hike.

Students are complaining that this LUMS fee hike is being blamed on regular inflation and disregards the severe economic crisis everyone is going through

Many students are asserting that the statistics provided by the institution are misleading and instead of 13% increase, the increase is 41% which means that they will have to pay an extra 1 to 1.5 lac approximately.

Some students have made their own calculations based on the University’s changed policy of charging the fee per credit hour instead of a blanket fee for credit hours up between 12 and 20.

The fact that LUMS official website has removed the pages containing their fee structure, which is usually public knowledge for a “Not-for-Profit University” is leading to more suspicious chatter

A few students have also revealed that the institution has now refused to share the fee structure after the LUMS fee hike was implemented, until the release of the annual fee bill

People termed this specific act by LUMS as inhumane and profit-hungry

They highlighted the manipulation of the institute during this crucial time of the pandemic.

A lot of them reminded LUMS about the adverse effects of the pandemic which was and is affecting their financial statuses

They claim that with the already exorbitant fees that the university charges in comparison to other top institutions of the country it cannot classify itself under the tag of ‘not-for-profit’

Some students even mentioned that the fact they’re unable to avail physical facilities of the university for a whole academic year, their fees should actually have been refunded instead of increased even more

They mentioned that the institute is still charging them for hostels and other on-campus facilities.

They claimed that the institute makes false claims regarding the values of diversity and integrity and in reality, they only care about the profit being earned

After all the backlash LUMS finally made an official statement about the exorbitant fee increase

The University’s statement says that this increase was pre-determined before the COVID-19 situation that has led to the economic crisis and they said that the students’ fees don’t cover the entire cost of the University and they’re just a fraction of the total expenditure.

People are not buying the argument put forth by the University

https://twitter.com/taniasaeed/status/1257614480458100736

While it is understandable that LUMS may have planned the fee hike before the current pandemic, the University must realize that the current pandemic is an unexpected natural disaster that is afflicting the whole world. In a time like this, people are expecting top organizations to show empathy, kindness and leadership in order to earn peoples’ trust through these uncertain times and not act like heartless corporations that they really may be.

So, what are your thoughts about the issue? Let us know in the comments below.