Kolhan University has waived off 30 per cent of the total fees of its professional courses across its constituent colleges in the region, for the three-month lockdown from April to June, to lessen the financial burden of students and parents amidst the coronavirus pandemic.

The university and the college decided, last week, to waive off an amount of around Rs 73.5 lakh across nine professional, self-finance courses.

“It was a unanimous decision by the Kolhan University. Since professional courses are self-financing courses and are costlier than the general courses, the university decided to waive 30 per cent of their total fee structure during the lockdown period,” said Kolhan University spokesperson A. K. Jha.

The university’s professional, or vocational courses as they are also called, include subjects like BBA, BCA, MBA, MCA, Mass Communication, and B.Sc (IT) among others.

Jha said that 80 per cent of the loss will be shared by the respective colleges while the university will share 20 percent of the loss.

Students were delighted with this unexpected move from the university.

“We are surrounded with controversies but this came as a surprise,” said Pankaj Mehta, a BCA student of Jamshedpur Workers’ College.

“It took more than three months for the government to intervene in the school fee waiver matter but our university did it without any government intervention. This will be a great relief for all students pursuing similar courses,” he said.

Private schools in Jharkhand took three months to waive their charges for extracurricular activities and transportation, following the intervention of the state department of school education and literacy.