Biratnagar: Purbanchal University (PU) has blocked grade sheets of colleges that have not paid the annual affiliation fees.

The decision taken by the university’s office of the controller of examination is an attempt to collect the affiliation fees that amount to around Rs 40 million.

“More than 60 colleges have not paid the affiliation fees. As such, we decided to block their grade sheets,” said Sushil Kumar Jha, the controller of examination. He said repeated reminders sent by the PU to the colleges failed to yield results.

One of the colleges that has not paid the affiliation fees is the Bhaktapur-based Khwopa Engineering College. The PU central office in Biratnagar said the college is yet to pay over Rs 10 million in affiliation fee dues.

The colleges have, meanwhile, attributed the payment delay to the PU’s failure to publish the academic calendar on time. University officials, on the other hand, had a different explanation. They said that these colleges collected the affiliation fees from students until three years ago. After the students refused to pay the money, the colleges consistently failed to pay the fees to the university.

Jha said the university could cancel examinations as well as student admit cards if the colleges fail to clear the dues.

source: Bhandari, Binod(2011),"Affiliation fees: PU blocks grade sheets of colleges", The Kathmandu Post, 24 May 2011