Pondicherry varsity doubles MBA fees, student forums protest

PUDUCHERRY: Pondicherry University has more than doubled the fees for MBA courses, triggering protest by various students’ forums including the Students’ Federation of India (SFI).
The university has hiked the annual fees for the MBA courses from Rs 74,200 in the academic year 2018-19 to Rs 1.66 lakh in the academic year 2019-20.
“The fees for all the MBA courses have been increased by 125% without any contemplation.The university doubled the fees for MBA courses. Certain fees such as amenities development fund, industry-interface fund and placement assistance fund that were paid by students only once during the admission have now been made yearly. Moreover, the university has also hiked the fees under these heads,” said SFI, Pondicherry University (PU) chapter secretary Abhijeet Sudhakaran said.
The students’ forums argued that the exorbitant hike in fees structure will deny the opportunity of the students from the poor economic and social background from pursuing higher education.
“We strongly oppose this huge increase in the fees and view it as an anti-student move. SFI demands immediate revoke of the fee revision,” said SFI-PU president C P Uvais.
The university sources said the academic council and executive council have given the approval to hike the fees for all the courses from the next academic year.
“The university decided to hike the fees for all the courses (not only MBA courses) from the next academic year. The school of management was the first to commence admission for the next academic year and the prospectus for the MBA courses furnished the revised fees structure. The revised fees structures of other courses will be furnished as and when the respective departments release admission notification and issue prospectus,” said a university official.
Another official said the university hiked the fees last time in 2012-13. “It is almost seven years since the fee structure was revised. We revised the fee structure keeping in mind all the necessary factors. Moreover, the support from the funding agencies has been dwindling over the years,” said the official.
However, the students’ union leaders argued that hike in certain heads of the fee structure was exorbitant. “For example, the alumni association fund was hiked from Rs 100 to Rs 1,000, additional lab facility fund from Rs 200 to Rs 5,000 and tour and industrial visit fund from Rs 1,000 to Rs 5,000 among others. We have submitted a memorandum to the university registrar urging the university management to withdraw the hike in fee structure,” said Sudhakaran.