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A group of students of the Yerevan State University (YSU) on Tuesday marched to the government building, demanding a partial tuition reimbursement.

More than 5,000 students have joined a petition launched by the YSU Student Council to urge the authorities to pay part of their tuition fees.

The students claim the coronavirus pandemic has affected their ability to pay for tuition.

“We are doing this now and not waiting for more signatures to be collected because the payment due date is approaching. If students fail to pay [their tuition], they will be dropped from their classes. This issue must be addressed immediately,” one of the students said.

He added that the Yerevan State University cannot reimburse the tuition of such a large number of students.

Head of the YSU Student Council, Davit Apoyan, handed in the petition to a government representative, expressing hope the authorities would give a positive feedback in a short period of time.

The government representative said that the prime minister will be hosting a series of new discussions on socio-economic activities in the coming days, adding their letter will definitely be taken into account during decision-making.

Davit Apoyan said that the deadline for paying the freshmen's tuition is today, while those who still owe money from the previous semester must pay the sum by September 18.

"If you are going to develop a program, maybe you should try to order or instruct the universities not to drop students out of classes on that ground and give them extra time before the program is developed,” Apoyan suggested.

The government representative promised to convey their request to the prime minister.