LUMS breaks silence on fee hike amid coronavirus outbreak

Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) clarified on Monday that the hike was decided before the Covid-19 outbreak in the country. This official statement came when people were protesting on Twitter against 41 per cent tuition fee increase.

The statement was issued by the office of Vice-Chancellor Dr Arshad Ahmed which states that the increment was “entirely consistent with prior years and took into account extraordinary increases in inflation, energy costs and currency devaluation.”

According to reports, per credit hour fee has been increased by 13 per cent. On average, students opt for 16 credit hours per semester, this adds up to 41 per cent overall increase in tuition fees.

“The increase was 13 per cent which we will monitor in determining the next fee card. Previously, a blanket fee was being charged for students registering between 12 to 20 credit hours. This fee is now [being] calculated on per credit hour basis which will increase the semester fees for some and decrease it for others [depending on the number of registered credit hours],” the statement said.

Furthermore, one of the reasons behind increasing the fee is to “discourage students from taking course overloads which negatively impacts their learning.”
“LUMS fees cover a fraction of the total costs. As a not-for-profit university, gifts from donors, trustees, etc. helps to subsidize one out of three students.”

Yesterday, ‘#LUMSFeeHike’ was trending on twitter after the Lahore University of Management and Sciences (LUMS) confirmed its students through email that they would increase tuition fee by 40 per cent for the upcoming semesters.