Fee hike: PU student bodies to hold protest outside V-C’s office on July 11

Various student bodies of Panjab University will hold a protest outside the vice-chancellor’s office on Monday against the senate’s approval of the proposed fee hike for 2022-23 session in its last meeting held on Tuesday

Various student bodies will hold a protest outside the vice-chancellor’s office on Monday against the senate’s approval of the proposed fee hike for 2022-23 session in its last meeting held on Tuesday.

PU senate in its meeting on July 5 approved the proposed fee hike of 7.5% in partially self-financed courses and ₹1,000 in traditional courses for the 2022-23 session. (HT File)

Student bodies including Ambedkar Student Association (ASA), National Students Union of India (NSUI), Students For Society (SFS), Punjab Students Union (PSU-Lalkaar), Students Organisation of India (SOI) issued a joint statement on Thursday stating that they outrightly reject the varsity’s move to hike fees.

PU senate in its meeting on July 5 approved the proposed fee hike of 7.5% in partially self-financed courses and ₹1,000 in traditional courses for the 2022-23 session. The student bodies, however, said that the move will put extra burden on students particularly those who are poor and belong to marginalised sections of the society.

“It has come at a time when inflation and unemployment has already wrecked the backbone of the economy and poor sections of our society. As usual, PU authorities and the government failed to acknowledge that education is not a commodity to be bought or sold in the market. Therefore, citing inflation as the reason for the fee hike is a gross travesty of the very idea of public education,” the student bodies said.

The statement added: “We request students, teachers, senators and other stakeholders of Panjab University to strongly oppose fee hike.”

The student bodies also condemned and opposed merging six distinct departments of emerging areas and varsity’s keeping the admission of the nuclear medicine course in abeyance.

The varsity had last increased the fee in the 2019-20 academic session and thereon, deferred any hike indefinitely due to the pandemic.

Fee hikes over the past years have never gone down well with students. In 2017, a protest over fee hike at the varsity had turned violent after students clashed with police, who in turn had used tear gas to disperse the protesters.