PUDUCHERRY: With students refusing to budge, the impasse over tuition fee hike in Pondicherry University continues while the varsity administration, citing various expenses, stands its grounds on not rolling back its decision.
Others demands of the students include transportation fee waiver and 25 per cent reservation for Puducherry students in all courses. The Students’ Council of the university, which leads the agitation, maintains that the revised high fee takes away the opportunity for higher education out of students’ reach.
University Registrar B Chithra, in a release, said although the Students Council was made aware of the fact that there is an overall rise in the overhead costs due to increasing cost of materials, electricity, fuel, e-resources and software subscriptions for library and computer labs/centres and as such the varsity has no option but to increase the fees, the Council, for reasons best known to them, are still sticking to their demands. UGC is funding Rs 15 crore to meet these expenditures but, the university is spending nearly Rs 65 crore, she said.
Comparing the tuition fees stipulated by Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), University of Hyderabad and Central University of Kerala for professional courses, Chithra said the fees charged in Pondicherry University are lower. All the stakeholders have been working continuously to improve the university’s ranking, and to sustain its growth, the fee hike is inevitable after a gap of 10 years, she reasoned.
“Considering the demand of students, the Vice-Chancellor offered 20 per cent fee concession to underprivileged and Below Poverty Line students. However, the striking students initially demanded 50 per cent fee reduction for all the courses, which they subsequently changed as rollback of fee hike,” the Registrar added.
The Vice-Chancellor and the Executive Council repeatedly requested the Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD) to extend 25 per cent reservation for Puducherry students in all the courses offered on campus.
CM V Narayanasamy too requested the MHRD, the President and the Vice-President of India for the reservation.
However, the Union ministry is instructing strict compliance of implementation of Central Educational Institutions [Reservation in Admission] Act 2006 and its amendments, which only provides statutory reservation for SC/ST/OBC, EWS and PH categories for all centrally funded institutions, and Pondicherry University.