Image Src: Flickr. Caption: UoM Tree of Knowledge powered by Green Leaves…..

Today I was very surprised to see a letter written by the UoM council representative, addressed to the following key personalities:

i. Dr Navinchandra Ramgoolam , GCSK,FRCP , Prime Minister of the Republic of Mauritius.

ii. Dr Vasant Kumar Bunwaree, Minister of Education, Culture and Human Resources

iii. Prof S Jugessur , GOSK , Pro – Chancellor and Chairman.

iv. Prof S D D V Rughooputh , Ag. Vice – Chancellor.

v. Mrs S R Issur – Goorah, Registrar

vi. Dr P. Mohadep, Director of Tertiary Education Commission.

vii. V Babajee , President of Student Union

viii.All Students on Campus Via mail and notice board.

Here are some key points of the letter:

1. Penalty Fees

concerning penalty(for students who fail a whole year and need to repeat that year), exemption and late module registration penalty fees.

I (the council representative) am making a humble request to all concern authorities to cancel the penalty.

There is also a Facebook Group with over 900 members: PENALTY FEE Rs. 20,000 by UoM – Nous pas le!!!

2. UoM is responsible for the level of failures( number of repeaters and terminated).

a student normally needed to have 16 to 20 points prior to 2008/09 for admission but now a student with only 4 points easily gets a seat at the University. It is clear that the level of maturity and intelligence of a student having 20 points to that of a 4 points is different.

3. UoM Administration

Proper policies , attention, and support, should be provided to students. This is where the administration of the University failed. Being the council representative, I don’t want students to pay for any mis-management for which they are not at all responsible.

UoM admits weak students, makes them fail and get penalty fee from them to reduce the deficit created by its own mis-management. This is purely business and not quality or world class education.

When I enrolled for a degree course at the UoM, I used to hear from the student’s union, the motto: UoM: qui attire la créme de la societé Mauricienne. Today, with the introduction of policies like Penalty Fee, the motto has been modified: UoM- the Money-Making Instution qui n’attire pas nécessairement la créme de la societé Mauricienne. Ironic na??? 😕