[dropcap]Students[dropcap] from DIT think the €100 resit fee is mostly responsible for the €253,937 that the college has made from its students over the past two years.
However, the university has a higher number of repeat examinations compared to other universities. As DIT’s resit cost is considerably less in comparison to other Leinster based colleges, students are suspecting that this is the reason DIT made such a large sum of money from the examinations.
“If you have to repeat one exam or five, you still only pay €100 – because the cost to repeat isn’t expensive, people might get lazy and just decide they’ll repeat the exam in summer”, said Aoife Murphy, an engineering student in DIT.
DCU holds a similar system in place with resit fees- a set cost overs the cost of multiple resits. These are higher than DIT’s however- €190 or €250 if you have registered late.
DCU saw a total income of €184,790 from student resit fees in 2016/2017. This is still quite shy in comparison to NUI Maynooth, which earned €258,100 in 2016/2017, where prices start at €50 per exam.
IT Blanchardstown (ITB) charge €200 per paper exam. To repeat an entire module, the IT charges €250.
DIT property economics student Aisling Joyce is sure that casual teaching methods may be the root of the exam resit issue. “I think the problem is that lecturers are generally quite relaxed about attendance which results in very quiet classrooms,” she said.
“Financial pressure on top of the pressure students already feel, might have the opposite to the desired effect – resulting in more failed exams,” Murphy added.
This was already demonstrated by TCD students with their occupation of their Dining Hall protesting the €450 charge for repeat exam papers.
Bella Finn
Image Credit: Mikey Walsh