£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

A £20 fine would have sent the same signal without being mercenary.

It really wouldn’t. £20 is nothing: especially out of a student loan. £200 is a lot; he’ll miss out on quite a few nights out, Id imagine, or he’ll have to either tell his parents and ask for help or take on extra shifts. That means he’s very unlikely to make the mistake again.

They used to do this at my uni years ago. It worked. The lower fines didn’t.

If the fees arrive late, the university may well have to borrow money (paying interest) to pay its staff
These poor universities living hand to mouth .

I don’t think failing to register can be brushed aside as a little flakiness. It’s fairly fundamental, actually.

I don't understand how he's on a field trip if he's not registered. Where I work students have no access to library, online learning materials etc if they are not registered. We would assume that he was not returning if he didn't bother to register by the deadline. A late penalty applies for late registration as well as a per module penalty for altering modules after the transfer deadline. If particularly late we may refuse to allow registration at all and would definitely not mitigate any missed assessment due to lack of access to online materials.

Class sizes, room and teaching allocations, support resources and university income are based on numbers of registered students. Late changes require a significant amount of extra work for staff across the university. Students are told very early in their university careers that they need to check emails regularly so I think by beginning of second year he should be able to manage that.

Surely it wouldn't have hurt the university to issue a reminder?

I'd be amazed if they did not.
But he ignored them.
So he has a lesson to learn

These poor universities living hand to mouth.

You say this sarcastically, but it is quite well known that some UK universities are living on the edge financially. Indeed, UCL (hardly a minor institution) had financial issues such that it was actually struggling to pay staff wages one month.

They will have issued reminders. There will have been an initial deadline and possible extension(s) and then a fine. But he's unlikely to admit that to his parents. Not when he can convince them that the university is so unreasonable.

A field trip would have been organised and paid for a while ago. So I can imagine him going on that even if he hasn't bothered to register.

They must, surely, have sent him reminders?

Sorry, OP, I know this isn't what you asked, but surely you are asking questions of your DS? They must have told him more than once.

Jesus, he's a second year? That's even worse OP. Absolutely no reason then that he shouldn't know he had to register, even without them emailing.

He had all summer to register if he was returning. It may be that his fees will now not be paid until the next run.

He's probably been able to register for second year since June. It absolutely won't have been the case that they sent him one email and then fined him for being s couple of days late. That might be what he's telling you, but IME students often tell their parents very interesting versions of what's actually happened.

I worked in a college for a few years. During registration it's hectic for admin staff verifying IDs, changing modules, managing timetables, issuing cards and documents etc We had almost 20% of students failing to register which added to the workload and impacted in IT systems. We brought in a charge of $250 and our late registrations dropped to about 7%. We would get students claiming they had 'tried' but each record has an audit trail, so any fibber were caught out quickly.

The soft kid gloves get thrown off very quick when you've got 23,000 streaming through the door and are working 13 hour days for six weeks exacerbated by 'forgetful' students.

Your sons best bet is be incredibly polite and contrite, and they might waive it. I was a soft touch so usually in the first week I wouldn't charge students unless they were arrogant and rude. My heart was made of granite for those who treated me as though I was something unpleasant they had stepped in (especially if they were second or third years, and I could see they were barely making a Pass - often admin staff hold Masters or are doing their PhDs so are better qualified than students might realise)

For those saying he would have been able to register from June, this may not be true depending on the university. My DD1 could only register for 2nd year from the Monday of freshers week and had to be signed on using the university's wifi i.e. She actually had to be on campus. DD2 could register a few weeks before the start of term from home.
But without registering they wouldn't have got their loan so it's not something you forget.

Hellsbells - I think your DD1 is at same place as my son from threads we both been on regarding accommodation.

He was same, had to be on uni wifi to register for 2nd year at start of freshers but he obviously knew that and there is no excuse if Ops DS had emails in August. Apart from the uni wanting their fees, don't the students want their maintenance loans - which are also dependant on registration (suppose not if parents fully funding but few do that).

kath - well actually there is an excuse if it has to be done on uni wifi as he was out of the country up a mountain all during freshers. i'll get him to check.

well actually there is an excuse if it has to be done on uni wifi as he was out of the country up a mountain all during freshers. I'll get him to check.

So did everyone on the field trip fail to register or did some manage to sort it out?

If he had a valid excuse (which everybody else will have had also), why isn’t he offering it to the university like a grownup instead of whining that it’s not fair?
If he’s the only one it happened to, there is no valid excuse.

If he knew was going to be late registering he should have informed his university because his tuition fees can't be paid until he's registered. I knew I was going to be late registering for my first year but because the university was aware of the situation they let me register late without no consequences

Why is freshers week even remotely relevant to a second year student?

I think he's being a teensy bit economical with the truth to get a bit of sympathy from you.

And I'm actually a little surprised he was allowed to go on a field trip at all without being a currently registered student.

An error with Student Finance when I was in my final year meant my student loan didn’t get paid because Student Finance thought I’d finished my course. My university gave me 3 weeks to pay up or have charge of 3% of the outstanding balance put on my account. This sort of term is included in your sons contract with the university.

A £200 fine for not registering by the deadline is standard at most British universities.

Your son will have had emails at least weekly, and possibly phone calls too, reminding him to register, for the past 30 days.

due a small admiin oversight

ha ha ha ha ha - Just multiply your son's lack of responsibility by, say 10,000 undergraduates in each institution.

Think about that, OP. And it will mean your DS has learned about being organised, paying attention to his responsibilities, and paying his bills/undertaking his responsibilities on time.

Better a £200 cost now, than being sued for not doing his tax return, or paying his Council Tax bill.