Jamie SarkonakWhile reading week for most students likely started off as a lazy Monday, 238 engineering students woke up to an email telling them to pay up.
On November 7, “human error” caused the University of Alberta to under-assess tuition for 194 domestic students and 44 international students in ENGG 404 (Engineering Safety and Loss Management), who are now being asked to pay $177.36 and $679.84, respectively, by January 30, 2017. The notice came after the tuition payment and add-drop deadline. The university has charged ENGG 404 students total of more than $64,000.
For some programs, ENGG 404 is a mandatory, seminar-based course that teaches engineers how to manage risk and practice industry standards for health, safety, and environment. The course follows modules and occasionally invites guest lecturers.
For international students like Rabib Alam, the unexpected fee has added even more to strain to a tight budget. International differential fees and engineering market modifiers have Alam paying about $11,000 for four courses in a semester (normally, engineering students take six courses per semester). Alam worked a summer engineering internship to pay for living costs during the year and $2,650 for a vehicle. Had he known that he was going to receive a $679.84 tuition charge halfway through the semester, Alam would have budgeted less for a vehicle.
“Where’s the money going to come from? I don’t know,” Alam said. “A bursary, if I’m lucky. If I’m not lucky, who knows.”
Alam’s dad covers his tuition, but agreed on a budgeted amount at the beginning of the year. The ENGG 404 student said his dad won’t be helping him with the $679.84 charge.
According to Lisa Collins, Vice-Provost and University Registrar, the error was discovered on October 27. Collins said her staff had accidentally removed the Engineering market modifier fee, which is charged on top of all Engineering courses, for ENGG 404 at the beginning of the year. That is, while domestic students in ENGG 404 were originally charged $532.08, they should have been charged $709.44. International students were charged $2,039.52, but should have been charged $2,719.36. Collins said the new charge accounts for about 2.5 per cent of an engineering student’s tuition. Collins is directing students who were inconvenienced due to the mis-assessment to visit Student Connect in the Administration Building for help pursuing financial aid.
“What the fee re-assessment does is correct an error,” Collins said. “It was an unfortunate error, but no student is being asked to pay more than the approved fee … I hope that students don’t see this as a fee increase.”
Domestic students, such as Chemical Engineering Students’ Society co-president Chen Liang, have to come up with $177.36. Liang said he has savings to cover unexpected expenses, but found the need to pay mis-assessed fees more than halfway through the semester “shocking.” Liang said ENGG 404 isn’t a mandatory course for his program, and that if he had earlier notice of the fee error he could have dropped it. At this point, if Liang withdraws, he’ll still have to pay half of the $177.36 in accordance with the university calendar.
“It’s November 7, for God’s sake,” Liang said. “We’re two months in. The last day to drop courses is September 15, the last day to pay tuition is September 30. Midterms are done. You’re trapped. The only option we were given was to pay, and that’s not right.”
Collins said that standard practice in the Office of the Registrar is to give students two weeks to pay if they were mis-assessed. In the case of ENGG 404, students would have had to pay up by the end of November or else they would face interest charges. Collins said the payment deadline was stretched until January 31, 2017 — the same payment deadline for Winter 2017 tuition — to give students “a little bit of extra notice.”
“Adding a reassessment to a student’s total bill for their tuition for the year is never ideal,” Collins said. “But the least we can do is give them more than two months to plan for paying the extra amount.”
For Alam, the two-month fee deadline is still tight — sarcastically, he calls it “the best Christmas present.” He currently works in a non-profit to pay for living expenses during the semester, and won’t be able to focus solely on work until the summer, and is frustrated that he’s expected to pay the extra fees at the same time as his winter tuition.
“Giving us until the end of the school year would have made more sense,” Alam said. “Or even a payment plan. We understand that it’s a big amount, and that certain amounts have to be paid at certain times. But they were just like, ‘Whoops, sorry, we messed up. You owe us $650 and we have the best accountants on our team. You have two months to pay us.’”
Alam said international students are attracted to the U of A because of the economy. International students entering the program a few years ago expected to be able to pay steep tuition with summer jobs. But Alam said that isn’t the case anymore.
“Now, you’re just barely surviving,” Alam said. “You’re just trying to figure out what you can do four months in with no job to pay back tuition. At a time like this, when (a tuition re-assessment comes out), it’s not good news for anyone.”
