BHUBANESWAR/CUTTACK:
Ravenshaw University's decision to
raise fees for courses across the board has led to
strong protests, with students
staging a demonstration in front of the
vice-chancellor's office on Tuesday.
The students demanded that the hike be rolled back, until which time the protest will continue. Since 2017, the fee structure in several departments has gone up by 80%, the students said.
"Several departments have raised the fees from Rs 5,000 to Rs 50,000, an exorbitant hike. There are students who hail from economically disadvantaged sections, who just can't afford it," said Ashok Kandi, a student at the university.
The fees for Masters in Commerce (Entrepreneurship) are reportedly set to go up from Rs 25,000 to Rs 40,000. For a Masters in Journalism, students will have to shell out Rs 30,000 now, six times of what they used to pay.
Decisions by the authorities regarding the hostel have also not gone down well with the students.
The university had issued a notice to vacate the hostel by May 28 and stipulated that a hostel inmate would have to pay for at least 20 meals a month. "There was no such system in place earlier. This imposes yet another burden on us," said Saroj Mansingh, a history student who stays at
Lalitgiri Hostel.
Vice-chancellor Ishan Kumar Patro defended all the decisions, citing the need to raise money for maintenance of hostels. "We will start repairing the hostels, for which we gave a notice to the students to vacate the rooms," he said. The authorities have, however, introduced annual charges of Rs 500 for hostel maintenance and Rs 480 as establishment charges.
The vice-chancellor added that the plan to introduce several self-financing courses necessitated the fee hike. "Compared to other institutions, we do not have an unaffordable fee structure," he further said.
