FC students on hunger strike over hike in fee

Pune: A group of students at Fergusson College have started an indefinite hunger strike in the college premises against the exorbitant rise in the fee for the grant-in sections for the new admissions for first-year undergraduate courses of arts and science.

While the fee was around Rs 5,000 until the last academic year, the students seeking new admissions for the classes FYBA and FY BSc are now paying the fee between Rs 9,000 and Rs 11,000.

“We were shocked to see this huge hike in the fee, they have almost doubled up the amount. When we asked the college principal about the same, we were told that the fee has been increased because of the college’s autonomous status,” said Sunil Jadhav, a final-year student of BA (Economics), who is amongst the 15-20 students protesting at the college.

“We understand that the fee increases when the college becomes autonomous and we would not have said anything if the raise was stalled at 10 to 15 per cent. However, this hike is unreasonable. This way, students from humble middle-class backgrounds would find it difficult to take admission.”

Reacting to the same, Fergusson College Principal Ravindra Pardeshi told Sakal Times, “We have increased the fee after three years that too when we received the autonomous status and have taken approval from the concerned authorities. The hike is only for the students taking admission in the first year, not for the already existing students.” 

While the hike has also been enforced for the in-grant admissions, Pardeshi said, “We do not receive a non-salary grant. So this hike was due anyway.”