Punjabi varsity partially rolls back fee hike; protesters adamant

According to the university, even after the revision, its hostel fees remained considerably lower than those of Panjab University, Chandigarh, and Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar

Though Punjabi University, Patiala, on Tuesday announced a partial rollback of the fee hike for various academic courses, the students continued their week-long sit-in outside the office of vice-chancellor Jagdeep Singh, demanding a complete withdrawal of the fee hike. The students had also gheraoed Punjab health minister Dr Balbir Singh during his visit to the university last week while seeking the state government’s intervention for withdrawal of the fee hike.

The university had last week increased fees for various courses by nearly 17%. (HT)

The university had last week increased fees for various courses by nearly 17%. The students have described the hike as unjustified and unaffordable, particularly for students from economically weaker sections. In a statement, vice-chancellor Jagdeep Singh said the university had decided to partially roll back the hike. He said the effective increase, which comes after a gap of nearly five years, will now stand at approximately 7.5%.

Justifying the hike, the vice-chancellor said the university had been facing financial constraints for several years and, like other state universities, needed to generate additional resources to sustain academic, research, infrastructure and student welfare activities.

According to the university, even after the revision, its hostel fees remained considerably lower than those of Panjab University, Chandigarh, and Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar. Regarding the partial withdrawal of the hike, the VC said the decision was taken keeping in view the socio-economic background of the student community. “This decision reflects the university’s effort to balance its financial needs while maintaining its commitment to keeping higher education affordable for students from all backgrounds. Despite facing a severe financial crisis for several years, the university has consistently aimed to minimise the burden of fee increases on students,” he said.

Not acceptable: Protesters

The protesting students said the partial rollback was not acceptable and that their sit-in would continue until their demands were met. According to the students, they would intensify the agitation from Thursday and would not allow MLAs and ministers into the university campus.

Gurdas, a member of the Fee Hike Opposition Front, said, “For some courses, the fee hike is more than double. The Punjab government had announced that it would waive off the ₹150 crore loan, but not a single penny has been waived off.” He added that Punjabi University was paying ₹14 crore as interest every year on the loan.