Fee hike: Under fire, AU hits back with comparative fee chart of other central varsities

AU authorities maintain that the fee, which has been increased after several decades, is still less than what many other central universities are realising, despite the fact that those central universities are getting much more grant from the government as compared to AU.

PRAYAGRAJ: Days after senior leaders of different political parties, including Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi and Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav criticised the decision of the Allahabad University (AU) administration to hike the fee of its various courses from the new session, the varsity administration has come out with a comparative chart of the increase in fee at AU from 2022-23 session onwards with other select central universities of the country, to justify its decision.

The fees for the professional courses have not been raised and remain unchanged. (Pic for representation)

AU authorities maintain that the fee, which has been increased after several decades, is still less than what many other central universities are realising, despite the fact that those central universities are getting much more grant from the government as compared to AU.

AU’s public relation officer, Prof Jaya Kapoor said, “AU has been facing reduction in funds but still refrained from raising the fees but in view of the need to garner resources to meet the expenditure and provide facilities to students , fee hike was an imminent requirement.”

Thus, the decision was taken to raise the fees for the first time ever since the university came into existence as an independent entity in 1922, she added.

The PRO further said that the fee was raised and brought almost at par with the other central universities and yet it was lower than most of them.

“If we take the fee for science students in an undergraduate class, it is still the lowest after the hike (around ₹4,151 per year) in the bracket among many other central universities including BHU-Varanasi, Hyderabad, Kashmir, Odisha and South Bihar. The same is the case for other courses where the fees, even after the increase, remain the lowest across the comparable major central universities.

“If we take the example of fee for MSc at AU and compare the same with some of the prominent central universities of the country, the present annual fee for MSc at AU is just ₹1,861 whereas at Banaras Hindu University, the annual fee for the same course is ₹6,720. After the hike, new students at AU enrolling from 2022-23 session and onwards will have to pay ₹5,401 per year, which is still less as compared to University of Hyderabad ( ₹13,770), Central University of Rajasthan ( ₹37,510), Central University of Kashmir ( ₹9,845), Central University of Odisha ( ₹7,170), Central University of South Bihar ( ₹9,624) and so on. The fees structure of the private universities, for the same course, is more than ₹1lakh per year,” the PRO said.

The AU PRO further said that AU administration was sensitive to the interests of the students and so the present students in various courses had been kept out of the ambit of fee hike. The hike would only be applicable to the students who took fresh admission in various courses from the coming session (2022-23).

It is also to be noted that the fees for the professional courses have not been raised and remain unchanged.

“It is important to also note that the fees of the students from the under-privileged sections of society gets reimbursed under various government schemes so that they do not have to bear the burden of a fees rise”, said Prof Kapoor.

Protest continues

However, protests against the fee hike continue on AU campus. The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP ) conducted a ‘buddhi-shuddhi’ yagya on the Arts campus of AU against the fee hike on Thursday. The yagya was performed in front of the Central Library gate of AU against fee hike and other problems as claimed by ABVP activists. They locked the main gate in front of the library. “We prayed to the Almighty that through this Yagya, the vice chancellor is blessed with wisdom and she withdraws this decision of increasing the fee,” said Atendra Singh, secretary of ABVP (Kashi Pranth) unit.