Tuition troubles//

UBC charged some students late fees after saying it wouldn't

Some students were charged late tuition fees after being advised by UBC they would not receive fee penalties.

In an interview with The Ubyssey, Graduate Student Society (GSS) Councillor Chirantan Roy said previously students could email the enrolment services office to ask for an extension to pay their tuition.

“When those students started to approach the enrolment services [this year], they were told that [UBC was] not officially extending the deadlines, but instead ... [UBC] won't charge anyone any interest or penalties during this transition [to Workday Student],” said Roy.

According to Roy, students who didn’t pay their tuition by September 4 received a message saying their account has been placed on a financial hold. Roy first brought up this concern at a September AMS Council meeting after the GSS received emails from students about the problem.

“We got an email back from [UBC] saying it was sent as a mistake, and you won't be charged for any delays during September," he said. "But [for students] who still want to extend their tuition deadline [beyond September], they are still getting the same message."

In a statement to The Ubyssey, Rella Ng, associate vice-president, enrolment services and registrar, wrote “UBC acknowledges that there have been multiple challenges with tuition and fee assessments this term and will be waiving late fees and penalties for the 2024 Winter Session for September and October.”

UBC launched the new student portal Workday Student in May, but has faced criticism from students to being difficult to navigate.

In an interview with The Ubyssey, AMS VP Academic and University Affairs Drédyn Fontana also spoke about hearing students frustration with the transition and said the AMS is facilitating a survey on Workday which is close to breaking the Academic Experience Survey’s response rate.

“Many different constituencies have been talking about doing a Workday survey so we as the AMS said 'If everyone wants to do a Workday survey, let's just facilitate this together as a caucus,'” said Fontana.

He also said the survey did not have a lot of incentives for students to fill out, unlike some other surveys — showing students passion about the issue.

“It's just tremendously important for the university, to listen to students on this and to at least, to take into account which functionalities students would like to see prioritized.”