Strike by students over fee hike uncalled for: Pondicherry Univ

A PU release said the fee hike was not unilaterally decided by the university administration. To meet out the increasing expenditure and due in revision of the fee for a long period, an Academic Fee Revision Committee meeting was reportedly held on January 18, 2019 under the chairmanship of the Director (Studies, Educational Innovation and Rural Reconstruction). The recommendations of the committee were approved by the Academic Council on February 14, 2019 and then by the Executive Council the next day.

Based on the representation from the students’ council of 2018-19, a meeting with the council representatives --- Junaid Nazar, president, Shonima Nelliat, vice-president, Padakanti Shiva Rama Krishna, secretary and Arjun, executive member--was held on March 19, 2019 and the university administration explained the reasons behind the inevitable revision of fee which was due to the reported reduction in UGC funding and enhanced facilities like AC classrooms, AC auditorium, study tours, placements and industrial visits by the university.

The students’ council had agreed for the new fee structure to be implemented from 2019-20 endorsing the minutes dated March 19, 2019. The student representatives were assured of better services and their request of redistributed fee to various semesters was also taken for consideration by the university administration, the release said.

While the students’ council of 2018-2019 had in principle agreed to the new fee structure by signing the minutes of the meeting held on March 19, 2019 and all the changes requested by the council were executed to a large extent, the protest is uncalled for and the university is not against the idea of providing quality infrastructure and facilities, the release said.

The minutes of the meeting held on March 19 last year stand as proof of the ever-changing demands of the Students’ Council and the misinformation that is being spread to bring down the reputation of the esteemed institution by a few individuals, the release added.

Further, to consider the Students’ Council request, taking into account the sentiments, concerns and feelings expressed by the student community, the university Vice-Chancellor directed the Academic Fee Revision Committee to re-examine the proposed fee hike, the release said. Accordingly, the committee met again on May 22, 2019 and reduced the fee for MBA by 13%, MCA by 29% and MSc / MTech by 21% for the students to be admitted from the academic year 2019-20.

The new revised fee was to be made applicable only for the newly admitted students of the academic year 2019-20 only and the existing students continued to pay the old fee only. This was published in the Prospectus [2019-20] and university website, it said.

This fee revision was approved by the executive council on October 10, 2019 and by the Academic Council on November 14, 2019. Subsequently, no protest or representation was made by the Students’ Council on the revised fee. But strangely, the Students’ Council of 2019-20 has now once again taken the issue in February 2020 and is unreasonably demanding 100% rollback of the fee structure that existed during 2012, the release said. Only a small section of the students is bent upon disturbing the peaceful academic culture of the university, the it also said, adding the effort to settle this impasse shall, however, continue in all sincerity.