£200 charge for missing registration deadline - anyone else experienced this?

[dreamingofsun]

Son overlooked an email from uni telling them they had to register by a certain date or incur this charge. Does anyone else have any experience of this? £200 is a lot of money for his to stump up, due a small admiin oversight. I though uni's were supposed to be helpful student centric places. help/advice from anyone in the know please

[user918273645]

Why do you think the charge is unreasonable?

Universities have to pay their staff. If his late registration means that they get fees late (or not at all) they will still have to pay the staff that they sure were in place to teach him/administer his course.

At this point in his life, he does have to read emails carefully and make sure he meets deadlines. If he doesn't, there will be financial consequences - not just from the university but e.g. from student loans (when it comes to repayments), banks etc.

[allegretto]

Seems a lot for a small error. I would contest it.

[dreamingofsun]

you dont think 200 is a lot for a student? its quite a lot of money for me and i work. yes I agree he should have read his emails, but this is a lot of money

[RebeccaWrongDaily]

is it not 2nd or 3rd week of term?When did he think he'd have to register? Plus when he registers he gets his student finance so can pay it out of that.

[Ta1kinPeece]

If he's at Uni he has just had a harsh lesson in self responsibility.
Good.

[TrojanWhore]

I think it's quite reasonable actually.

It's about 2% of fees and presumably a one-off charge (no mention of interest if they don't cough up register.

Universities aren't awash with cash. They can't keep the registration period open whilst student decide if they are going to do their basic enrolment admin.

[dreamingofsun]

so do all unis do this? Or is it just the one my son is at? I always thought they tried to be supportive and accept a little flakiness from youngsters who had moved away from home. clearly i'm in a different mind-set to many

[Liadain]

Good for them, maybe it'll teach him a bit about being a responsible adult and meeting his deadlines.

Universities don't hand hold in the same way schools do (and I say that as a teacher!).

[user918273645]

Is it OK to accept flakiness from students if this affects their income, and hence their ability to pay staff? Do you expect me (or cleaners, catering staff on lower wages) to wait for our pay, just because he didn't register in time?

[dreamingofsun]

he applied for his tuition fees, i thought that was the thing that paid the uni? i would expect the university to have sound enough accounts that they could manage the odd glitch of 3 days overdue payment. I dont pay this level if i go overdrawn at the bank, and i've seen people on TV getting smaller fines for driving with no insurance etc

[allegretto]

I'm pretty sure nobody was left waiting for their wages because your son was slightly late for registration. How ridiculous! A £20 fine would have sent the same signal without being mercenary.

[user918273645]

If the fees arrive late, the university may well have to borrow money (paying interest) to pay its staff. The university also has to use administrator time to chase the registration, late fees etc - which also costs money.

It is not unreasonable to charge students these costs. Whether the costs are £200 or £20, I don't know. I suspect that the real costs are actually nearer the higher figure than the lower figure.

Again: nobody would expect to pay a bill after the final deadline without incurring charges. Why should you expect to be able to register late (and hence pay late) for university without incurring charges?

[VivienneWestwoodsKnickers]

What has he been doing for the last 3 weeks? Every student is told, reminded and already knows they need to register. It's how the tuition fees get paid after all. Hence the fine.

Yes it's a lot of money, but this is not a minor oversight bb

[ArbitraryName]

The university won't get the fees if he doesn't register.

If he's been fined, it must be several weeks in to term. (My university is on the third teaching week, and the students registered 4-6 weeks ago, generally). He won't have a student card without registering, so no access to the library (or student discounts). It's not really a small admin error.

Why on earth didn't he just register with everyone else? It's not at all difficult to register at university. Universities are student-centred places but sometimes you need to be very firm with young adults away from home for the first time. Otherwise they won't learn to take responsibility for themselves. It may well be an excellent lesson for him about reading emails and following instructions. It won't even just have been emails. He will have been reminded at several points during induction week that he needs to register. My tutor group went together to do it and pick up their cards. They were excited about it.

In fact, in your position, I'd be worried that he hadn't actually attended any of the induction activities. Because otherwise the general flow of things would have swept him along and it would all have been sorted.

[dreamingofsun]

vivienne - on a field trip miles away from uni, with limited communications, doing 20k steps a day up mountains and working 10 hour days.....but thats probably irrelevant as i think the comms was during the summer

[ArbitraryName]

Are you sure that the very first thing the university did was to take the students on a field trip up a mountain for 3 weeks?

[ArbitraryName]

Because that would be an unusual approach to starting university.

[dreamingofsun]

it was a week and a half, and yes that was the start of term apart from a day before and after. He's a second year and therefore arguably should know better but had an oversight

[ArbitraryName]

He's in second year, so not a new fresher with no experience of university or being away from home then.

In which case, he definitely deserves the fine. Hopefully it'll wake him up and make him take responsibility for himself.

[Allthebestnamesareused]

So it's his second year - even more reason that he should know that he needs to register and read his email. He is not just a student away from home for the first time - floundering a bit. He's been away for over a year/15 months now!

[LRDtheFeministDragon]

I had a bit of sympathy until I saw he was second year. Come on, that's ridiculous!

[dreamingofsun]

so this is common practise? its not a hoax? The uni's network's not been hacked?

[PoppyPopcorn]

Overlooked = they told him, he didn't bother.

Totally his fault. He needs to stump up the cash and get on top of his admin.

[ArbitraryName]

No, OP. It's not likely to be a hoax.

It's a situation in which your adult son, who is by now well versed in student life, didn't bother to register for his second year. So several weeks after the deadline they're issuing him with a fine to help him to get his arse in gear.

Universities get paid fees based on the number of students who have registered on a certain date each term. So if he doesn't do it, they don't get paid. It makes no difference whether he's applied for his loan or not. That's a separate process.

[dreamingofsun]

its 3 days after the deadline actually arbitrary - thats £70 a day - thankfully my bank doesnt charge this for going overdrawn. And i already realise that its his fault and there's no sympathy here around admin glitches.

WHAT I ASKED was if anyone else had any experience of this happening?