PU charges the highest fee when it comes to regional universities, says Budhiraja

During the discussion on fee hike at Panjab University on Tuesday. (Source: IE photo by Sahil Walia)

IN order to submit a proposal to the PU authorities to stop the ongoing process of fee hike in the varsity, an open discussion was called upon by the Panjab University Students’ Council and the Joint Students’ Action Committee on the issue of ‘Fee hike: Justified or not’.
The discussion received a loud response from various departments and all students’ organisations which raised major differences in fee charged by Panjab University and the regional universities.

On the occasion, several resolutions were passed by the Students’ Council which included proper representation of the council in decisions of the university and freezing of the fee hike process and representation given in the Board of Finance. The members of the council stated that since the university says that there is shortage of funds, a representation should be given to the stakeholders through the vice-chancellor. It was further stated that there should be an audit of all expenditures of the university and all information on the same should be made public.

One of the students present at the discussion read out the differences in the admission and tuition fee charged by the Panjab University, MDU and Kurukshetra University. For the LLB course at University Institute of Legal Studies, Kurukshetra University charges Rs 25,000, MDU charges Rs 41,000 and PU charges Rs 75,000. For the Mass Communication course, KU charges Rs15,179, MDU Rs 25,749 and PU Rs 38,000. “This shows that Panjab University is charging the highest fee but they still wish to increase the fee by 5 percent,” said Divyanshu Budhiraja, president, PU Students’ Council.

Vice-President Snighda Bawa stated that although an open invitation was sent to the vice-chancellor, the DSW and the registrar, no one on their behalf was present. “Earlier, authorities had alleged that students protesting against fee hike have no purpose other than making a hue and cry in the varsity. But now when they were asked by the students to discuss the issue, they did not come,” she added.