Senate nod to 10 per cent fee hike for new students, five per cent for old

THE SENATE Sunday approved an overall fee hike of 10 per cent for new admissions to traditional and self-financing courses in 2018-19 while it stuck to a 5 per cent increase for ongoing students. The hike includes tuition fee and maintenance fee for all courses across the board.

The Senate also approved a 5 per cent fee hike in all constituent colleges of PU for the new session to enhance their resources.

Senators, however, managed to reduce the hike in examination fee down from Rs 200 to Rs 75 per semester. Also, the tuition fee of University Institute of Applied Management Sciences will be enhanced by Rs 6,000 per annum instead of the recommened figure of Rs 7,500 pa.

These decisions were based on the recommendations of working committees tasked with “rationalising and revising” the fee structure for the new session. The Syndicate, on April 29, approved the fee hike inviting criticism from the Panjab University Campus Students’ Council (PUCSC) and other student organisations.

On the request of Senators Pam Rajput and Ameer Sultana, Vice-Chancellor Arun Kumar Grover said the fee for new courses will not be increased in the first three years and the income from tuition fee will be used for the upkeep of laboratories and other infrastructure. He added that teachers’ salaries will be paid with the funds that come from the Centre.

Senators JK Goswamy said, “Students don’t mind the fee hike, but their only problem is that they don’t get proper infrastructure. In the last five to six years, academics has got the least priority in this university.”

Senators Chaman Lal and Pawan Kumar Bansal, however, were against the fee hike saying students should not be burdened to increase the income of the university.

“The government should meet the total deficit and a continuous process of analysis should be in place so that the fee is not increased,” said Bansal, former Chandigarh MP.

Senator Ashok Goyal pointed out that even the university needed to adopt austerity measures to reduce expenditure. “We must cut down on expenditure; I am yet to see any such proposal. For any project, a viability report is made of which the financial module is of the utmost importance,” he added.

Vikram Nayyar, Finance and Development Officer, tried justifying the hike in exam fee by saying it had not been increased at all in the last two years. Prof Grover, during the debate over the increase in examination fee, lost his cool and told the House that the Centre will not meet the budget deficit if the income of the varsity did not increase.

He warned the House, saying, “The budget of the university has been presented to you each year. Certain projections aren’t exorbitant; the exam fee is also a major part of the income generated. So, if we don’t do this, no one will be there to replenish the deficit and that will mean a freeze in payment of salaries to teaching and non-teaching staff.”

However, he also recommended ways to reduce the expenditure by saying PU could make good use of technology in reducing expenses on examination and courses that were unviable could be dropped.

Student bodies condemn hike

While an online campaign, #SavePU_FromModiGovt, by the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) was one of the top trends on Twitter, the absence of the student council members was conspicuous in a meeting that has directly affected the students at large. The NSUI won the student council elections in September 2017.

Vani Sood, Secretary, PUCSC, said, “We are only special invitees at the Senate meeting, but are not allowed to speak. The fee hike was proposed before the grant from the Punjab government. Now that the situation has changed, why this fee hike? How can the authorities be so ruthless? Moreover, it has been strategically planned, now that exams are approaching and the students cannot protest.”

The NSUI also slammed the central government and Prime Minister Narendra Modifor not releasing grant. “This has led to a financial blockage that has resulted in subsequent fee hike for the past three years,” said senior leader Manoj Lubana.
News Source (Indian Express)