VCs demand law for 10% fee hike every 3 years
The Vice-Chancellors (VCs) of over 200 central and state universities on Saturday asked the Centre to provide statutory backing for binding 10% hikes in student fees every three years to meet the financial demands of their varsities.
The Vice-Chancellors (VCs) of over 200 central and state universities on Saturday asked the Centre to provide statutory backing for binding 10% hikes in student fees every three years to meet the financial demands of their varsities.
The VCs recommended “central and state universities may be statutorily required to adopt revision of fee structure payable by students by at least 10%” every three years,” during the 12th Five Year Plan starting next year.
The proposal for hiking fees was made at a national conference of VCs called by the University Grants Commission and the human resource development (HRD) ministry to help formulate the country's education strategy for the next five years.
Any fee hike will, however, be accompanied by adequate scholarship options to ensure that students admitted to a programme are not denied education because of a lack of resources, government officials said.
Fee hike proposals have earlier been made by the National Knowledge Commission too.
The VCs also reiterated all universities divide their academic year into semesters and shift from marks to credits in grading students, in order to facilitate mobility of students across varsities.
Though most VCs have earlier too supported these reforms, teacher unions have repeatedly opposed the move. The Delhi University — the country’s largest varsity — has witnessed a battle between teachers and administrators over introducing semesters for over a year now.