More fees before graduating

Opinions vary when it comes to what Langara College students think about the $10 application fee they must pay to graduate.

The fee is a non-refundable payment that must accompany a student’s graduation application form in order for it to be processed by the registrar’s office.

Fee covers processing

“It’s to cover the processing of the application,” explained a staff member from the Langara registrar’s office who did not wish to be identified.

“A basic application with no issues will take at least 20 minutes for us to process,” said the employee. “A more complex application can take at least over an hour.”

The source relayed that the fee policy has not changed for at least five years and that many of the office’s processes and forms do require fees.

Students weigh in

Langara student Thanos Kritharis does not understand why the fee is simply not included in tuition.

“It’s not really the fee,” said Kritharis. “It just seems kind of silly that you have to pay a separate fee. It’s a bit odd.”

Student Sam Laird, who admitted he was previously unaware of the $10 fee, said he also finds it hard to understand.

“It doesn’t really make sense to me,” said Laird. “I don’t really know why they need to do that. Why do you pay for school and then have to pay on top of that? Where does your money go?”

However Laird admits that $10 is quite a small amount to pay in comparison to the amount he’s paid in tuition already.

Student Virginia Millsap said she understands it probably takes a lot of work to go through so many forms and in the end she doesn’t really care about having to pay such a small amount.

Student Katherine MacLennan said she also believes the fee is reasonable.

“Someone has to do it. They have to get paid for their work.”

Reported by Chris Slater