Recently a 4-year student of Hrachya Atcharyan University committed suicide by jumping out from the 7th floor of the building. The student left a note, where she explained that the reason of her suicide was her inability to pay the student fee. This bad news interested us a lot and we decided to find out what the order of paying student fees was. While talking to us the pro-rector of this university has only mentioned that this girl didn’t owe any fee to the university, nor did she have any academic exam to pass. Nevertheless, we tried to find out from several universities how tragic the results of student fees might be for students.
The rumors of the possible increase of gas price caused concern among the heads of private institutes and the students who attend those institutes. “It’s not a secret that every university, when defining fees, always takes into account the expenditures of the university. 70% of those expenditures are planned for salaries, 30% for communal expenses. The last one includes not only the laboratory materials or devices necessary for each faculty, but also restoration expenses of each square meter per student and other expenses. I am sad to say that if the gas price increases, we will have to increase the student fees”, -says the pro-rector of financial, social and students’ issues of Yerevan State Polytechnic Institute Laert Hovhannisyan.
Thus, by paying for the salaries of the professors and taking care of the communal expenses the students paying tuition pay a lot of money to the universities. The lowest annual fee of the least expensive department of the State Pedagogic University costs 170,000 AMD. No matter what deadlines the rectors of the universities define for student fees, they are still violated by the students and rectors, by changing the deadline all the time. The reason is that the rectors don’t want to get rid of the greatest funding by students. Thus, it is not very strange that the number of students, who quit education because of inability to pay fees, is not great. In any case, these were the results of our surveys conducted in the State Medical University, State Architecture University, Pedagogic University and the private university “Galik”.
Thus, over the period of 2004-2005 six students were dismissed from the State Medical University and 12 students from “Galik” because they were not able to pay their fees. The Architecture and Pedagogic Universities excluded cases of student dismissal because of inability to pay student fees. “No student has been dismissed from our university so far because of inability to pay. We do our best to pay these fees by either discounting it or finding sponsors”, -assures the pro-rector of Yerevan Architecture University L. Hovhannisyan. “Our rector always orders us to be careful with students, discount the fees as much as possible because this is how we mainly get paid. Therefore, no student has been expelled from our university so far because of that reason”, -claims the press secretary of the Pedagogic University Silva Asryan. In the State Medical University, during 2005, five out of the six expelled students (because of inability to pay) were foreigners. According to head of the student department of Yerevan Medical University Gevorg Adamyan, Armenian citizens are more responsible when paying fees than the foreigners.
Expelling students from departments where they pay tuition is not profitable in other aspects either. “According to the system, the debt of the student is considered a debitorial debt for the university. If the student is not able to pay and he is expelled from the university, the state demands to pay that debt anyways. We will get rid of that debt only if we appeal to the court and prove that the student has been expelled”, -clarifies the pro-rector of the Architecture University. Probably this is another reason why the students are allowed to study, only if they pay. The foreign students very often cause debitorial debts for the university because they might accidentally leave Armenia and quit their education. “In cases like this we have a lot of trouble in finding those students and wonder how we will prove the court that the student is not planning to come back”, -complains Mr. Hovhannisyan.
Different universities define different student fee discounts – up to 80%. This is done to make the students’ life easier. For instance, the University of Architecture of Yerevan has worked out different privileges for those students, who have excellent and good grades within 3-4 semesters – up to 50-80%. Other universities find other sources to provide stipends for certain students from departments where they pay tuitions. Thus, about 90 students of the Architecture University of Yerevan receive stipends, amounting to $100. However, as they say, it doesn’t heal all the wounds. In the opinion of the pro-rector of the Architecture University of Yerevan, the law provision regarding student fees is worth being amended.
The expelled students, who were not able to pay their fees, may enter the universities again after they pay their debts. Thus, all the students have to do is to pay and study.