TISS group starts fund-raising campaign to pay fees of 17 scholarship students

A students’ group at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai, has started a fund-raising campaign for 17 students who were unable to pay their outstanding

A students’ group at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai, has started a fund-raising campaign for 17 students who were unable to pay their outstanding fees owing to the Covid-19 lockdown. The 17 students are beneficiaries of the Government of India- Post-Matric Scholarship (GoI-PMS) and haven’t been able to arrange funds as there is a delay in the disbursement of their scholarship.

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The campaign aims to raise Rs 5,22,090 to pay the students’ outstanding fees. They have raised about Rs 87,000 so far.

HT had previously reported that student bodies on campus have been demanding a waiver of outstanding fees, which includes tuition fee, dining fee and hostel fee, of graduating students belonging to scheduled caste (SC), scheduled tribe (ST), other backward classes (OBC) and economically weaker sections (EWS). The institute didn’t accept this demand owing to a funds crunch.

The students couldn’t even check their results as the institute has withheld results of those with outstanding fees. One of the students is a 2019 graduate and hasn’t been able to get this degree as he hasn’t paid. Failure to pay fees might affect students pursuing a Masters degree.

“The institute’s financial inability to waive the fees and the state’s lag in allocating GoI-PMS scholarship, has stopped our further journey beginning from TISS. We cannot even get our Masters degree as we haven’t paid the fees,” said Goutham Raj Konda, who completed his course in Urban Policy and Governance but is unable to check his results as he has an outstanding amount of Rs 23,000.

The institute has indicated that any kind of waiver-- partial or full-- was not possible, given its financial health.