Students at Memorial University of Newfoundland require enrolment verification for various forms such as insurance, daycare subsidies, scholarships, etc.
International students at MUN require enrolment verification for MCP, visas, and for financial assistance.
Some of the new service fees implemented Oct. 1 2019 include:
• Replacement parchment $60;
• Certified copy of parchment $10 per copy;
• Verification of credential/attendance $15 per request;
• Confirmation of enrolment letter (requested online) $10 per request;
• Confirmation of enrolment letter (requested in-person) $15 per request;
• Additional confirmation of enrolment letter requested at the same time as initial letter (online or at the front counter in the same day) $2 per additional letter;
• Completion of forms (excludes student loan or pension forms) $15 per form;
• Letter of permission for students studying at other universities $30 per institution;
According to a recently obtained access to information request, students were not consulted about the new fees and some were blindsided by it.
This can be seen in an email sent by a student to the registrar’s office on Nov. 12 which stated “I simply do not have the means to pay this, as I will not be paid for another two weeks. This gets significantly worse because my MCP coverage is now expired. I am not allowed to extend my MCP coverage without an enrollment verification.”
In another email obtained through the access request, a student asked the university to consider online verification letters. “I understand a paper copy or a fax warranting a fee, but how does an email verification letter have any costs associated with it? It would be great if, as students, we could access an enrolment verification letter in self-service to screenshot ourselves similar to an unofficial transcript.”
The university registrar, Tom Nault, responded to the email by stating “Thanks for your suggestion and this is something we are looking into. The largest cost associated with the production of the enrolment letters is the staff time associated with the production. Though we have standard templates, many of the requests we receive require minor tweaks to the template to meet the specific needs of the requestor.”
Disappointment was expressed by another student via email to the registrar regarding MUN’s profit before students’ model, “I would like to pass along my disappointment. It’s pretty ridiculous that it has come to this. Once again MUN is putting the students second and profits first.”
Nault responded to these students by stating that a review of services was done in 2019 and during that process, they found that in recent years there was a significant increase in requests.
Nault stated that, “As you may be aware, most other Canadian universities have a similar fee structure in place where they charge for these types of services. In order to maintain our current service levels to our student community, it was decided to implement a fee-per-service model. The Board of Regents approved the new service fee.”
According to MUN Officials, the new fees are permanent and the registrar’s office is currently investigating the introduction of courier and/or electronic delivery solutions for transcripts.
I wish to end this letter with a statement from a Facebook post from another MUN students: “This is wrong and mean. For people who don’t know, EVs (enrolment verifications) are statements saying ‘this person is taking x courses.’ It is essentially a receipt for what we are already paying. Every international student has to present this document to the MCP, every year, to have health coverage and stay in the country. And now there’s a $15 tax on that. It can be removed with enough pressure from the student body. I strongly urge, every student to send an email to the [email protected], voicing their opinions.”
Matt Barter,
St. John's
