Vice Provost Chris Morash defended College’s decision to implement supplemental exam fees in an email circulated to students this afternoon.
“This decision was made as part of a set of measures which will be of great benefit to students; the ability to pay per-module for repeating the year,” he said in the email.
“It is worth noting that the decision was taken to make the system fairer rather than to generate money. In fact, this set of measures will cost the university around €200,000 every year.”
Morash stated that students having to pay for supplemental exams will be “disadvantage,” but stated that “it allows the university to prevent many students from paying to repeat an entire year. Currently, students are obliged to repeat a full year even if they have failed only one or two modules and hence must pay the full year’s fees. Under the new arrangements, repeating students will only pay for individual modules that have not been passed.”
“Board came to the view that this arrangement was fair as it constituted a reduced and more even distribution of cost among the student body. It also brings the university into line with other universities which have charged for supplemental assessments for many years. Some of those universities, incidentally, charge less per exam but do not cap the total cost so students will often end up paying more.”
In order to reduce financial hardship on vulnerable students, Trinity Access Programme (TAP) students and Higher Education Access Route (HEAR) students will be exempt from the new charge, and Board has made funding available to the Senior Tutor to deal with cases of financial hardship which might arise as a result of the decision.
In a “frequently asked questions” section below Morash’s statement, students were told that those forced to miss exams due to illness or a family bereavement will not be charged for repeating the modules, but will presumably be charged for the supplemental exam. Non-HEAR or TAP students facing financial hardship will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis with fund that is being created for the Senior Tutor, while
Students blocked Front Arch and the Book of Kells and gathered at the Nassau Street entrance to protest the implementation of the supplemental exam fees. “We will continue to protest until our demands are met. We will escalate our protests until our demands are met,” the protesters said in a press statement today.
