At a time when there is little summer income available to students, it is "the height of unfairness" that students of NUI Galway should incur a €295 repeat exam fee, when their counterparts in other Irish universities have had their repeat fees waived.
This is the view of Sinn Féin Galway West TD, Mairéad Farrell, who has written to the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Simon Harris, urging him to request that NUI Galway waive the fee, as Trinity, UCC, GMIT, DCU, QUB, and NUI Maynooth have done.
Minister urged to show 'comnpassion'
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In her letter to the Minister, Dep Farrell urged him to show "compassion", given the disruption caused by Covid-19, "and the likely disruption to services in the coming academic year".
She also noted that, given the online nature of the exams, the University would not incur the usual cost overheads associated with hosting large, sit down, exams on campus. According to the Students’ Union, the costs associated for exams held on campus show an average cost per exam of €10.98.
"Given that many students will now be using their own computers, broadband, and electricity to undertake these exams," she said, "it's incredulous that the university could end up profiting from the plight of these students."
