Coronavirus: Should Student Tuition Fees be Refunded

Coronavirus (also known as COVID-19) has emerged as a new pandemic in this year. Hence, it has taken a massive toll on people’s lives by not only taking innocent lives but also has prevented everyone from leading a regular lifestyle, business, economy, and whatnot! Academic institutions are no exception to their more significant impact.

To curb this pandemic and ensure safety for the people, authorities around the globe implemented lockdown on schools, colleges, and universities. Subsequently, academic institutions are heading toward online classes, and students are confined at their home attending online lectures.

Now the question comes, should student tuition fees be refunded? Answering this question with ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ would illustrate the ideological and stereotypical idea on this topic. To judge this topic without taking any side, it can be said in a very conscience way.

The first thing that should be considered is that academic institutions don’t maneuver over by itself. Instead, it brings success to its students. It becomes possible with the help of experienced, talented tutors. They always strive to assist students in reaching the pinnacle of success. It is essential to consider those gifted people, perhaps teaching is the only profession and medium to earn their livelihood.

That being said, if all the tuition fees are refunded to its students, then how come that educational institution will pay remuneration to its teacher? Legitimate right? You may say that those academic institutions should pay from their funds or capital.

But if you look at this matter carefully, you can judge from your conscience how many months an educational institution can afford to pay from their funds, one or two or a maximum of four months.  Then what will happen? If this goes on, then there is a considerable chance of immediately shutting down that particular academic institution.

From the students’ point of view, they are claiming refund because they are not getting quality education. Of late a petition has been signed by over 132,000 students demanding that United Kingdom universities reimburse students’ tuition fees during the strike action this academic year. Apart from United Kingdom universities, many students around the world are also protesting intending to get a refund.  It is found that among all the reasons, students and parents are questioning education quality, also provoking online education as ‘inadequate and ineffective education quality.’

Besides issues, bread and butter earner job loss or halting self-employment is also one of the primary reasons students want to get a refund.  Under such circumstances, students might want to drop this year to get the money back that he/she paid for the running semester. Obviously, they would think with that amount of money they can survive for some time.

In conclusion, coronavirus has caught everyone shocked also slumped all the development to a great extent. Universities could not exempt themselves from its impact. In such a situation, students ask for a refund, which puts education institutions in a dilemma of whether they should refund the total tuition fees. After the discussion mentioned above, considering both institutions’ and students’ instances, it can be said that institutions can refund Half of the tuition fees. On the other hand, students should also take the situation into account and take Half of the tuition fees and continue learning through online lectures. At the end of the day, everything will be normal like before, and academics will produce more qualified individuals. Students will become a success in their life. Happy teaching, Happy Learning!