A Da Nang university has surprised its students by suddenly hiking fees for repeated courses in a bid, an official says, to encourage them to study harder.

Students at the Da Nang University of Physical Education and Sports (DUPES) are now required to pay VND40,000 (US$2) per class period of a repeated course, which may make its tuition overtake that for a whole semester in some cases.

Q.H., a sophomore, complains he will have to pay VND3 million ($150) to re-take a course in English that includes 75 class periods while a whole semester at DUPES just costs around VND2.3 million ($115).

“That is too expensive,” H. whines, “we can’t stand it, as we also have to cover the cost for our sports training equipment every month, which is already sky-high.”

Another second-year student, L.A. has been like a cat on hot bricks since hearing about the new fee.

“My family back in the countryside would be unable to earn that much money for me just to repeat the English course,” she says.

And neither would the families of her fourteen other classmates, who are to sign up for the same course again.

In another case, a basketball major says he will have to pay as much as VND13 million ($650) for six modules he has failed so far.

“We never imagined the fee would be that high,” the student says. “This is completely unexpected.”

Nguyen Nhat Hung, vice chief of academic affairs, said the university previously multiplied the number of class periods by VND30,000 ($1.5) and then charged tuition after dividing the product by the number of course repeaters.

Hung explained that the fee hike was meant to encourage students to try harder in their studies.

“There are some students who have to repeat 7-8 modules a year,” Hung said, “so that is a clear sign of unwillingness to study.

We simply want them to focus far more on their training to avoid repeating that many.”