Extra Fees, No Concessions: More Than 90 Indian Colleges Are Facing Student Protests

December 6, 2020 0 Comments

For several months, in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, colleges across India have shifted classes and other academic activities online. Classrooms are shut, water and electricity in colleges are no longer in use, libraries and laboratories are closed and hostels are only occupied by a handful of students who couldn’t go back home for some reason.

More so, students are attending online classes using their own devices and internet services – and many among those who come from underprivileged sections haven’t been able to do even that.

In such a situation, colleges have asked students to pay the same fee – which in itself is really high in private institutions – as they were paying before.

According students, in some private colleges, the per semester fee ranges from Rs 1.6 lakh to Rs 1.8 lakh. Now, instead of reducing the fee, some colleges have further hiked the fee by 10-20%. Apart from the tuition fee, the old fee structure covers miscellaneous expenses for resources such library, laboratory, sports facilities, internet services etc – all of which are no longer in use. The situation is even more troublesome for international students who pay a higher fee in comparison to other students.

The quality of education, according to some students, has also severely deteriorated when it comes to online sessions. Most of them have had to rely on online study materials to understand the concepts being taught. The demand for a high fee when neither the quality of education is good nor the college resources are being put to use is “unfair and unjustified”, say students.

According to students, some colleges have also been “forcing” and “threatening” them to make the payment on time. Colleges allegedly say that they will not take classes or accept their registration forms for the next semester until the students pay the semester fee. The appeal letters sent to the university administration have been invariably unfruitful, students from various institutions have said.

While some institutions have agreed to let students pay the fee in instalments, the question remains: Why should a student pay for resources they aren’t using?

Here is a list of colleges which, according to their students, have demanded the full fee.

Please note that this list has been compiled after students from these institutions reached out to LiveWire, asking for coverage. This list will be updated to add the names of more colleges as and when students alert us. We shall also strike out the names of institutions which agree to fulfil the demands of their students.

Note: According to an NMIMS Mumbai professor, who reached out to LiveWire on Twitter, the college has agreed to “offer concessions to students by asking them to pay in instalments” and that “deserving students have been promised relief”.

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  1. Adamas University, West Bengal
  2. Ajay Kumar Garg Engineering College, Ghaziabad
  3. Al-Ameen College of Pharmacy, Bengaluru
  4. Aligarh Muslim University
  5. Amity University, Greater Noida
  6. Amity University, Jaipur
  7. Amity University, Kolkata
  8. Amity University, Lucknow
  9. Amity University, Mumbai
  10. Amrita school of engineering, Coimbatore
  11. Ashoka University, Sonipat
  12. Atmiya University, Rajkot
  13. Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra
  14. BMS Institute of Technology and Management, Bengaluru
  15. Baba Mastanath University, Rohtak
  16. Banasthali Vidyapith, Rajasthan
  17. Basaveshwara Medical College, Karnataka
  18. Bennett University, Greater Noida
  19. CEPT University, Gujarat
  20. Cochin University of Science and Technology, Kochi
  21. Chaudhary Charan Singh University, Meerut
  22. Christ College, Bengaluru
  23. DG college of Architecture, Kerala
  24. Delhi Techonological University
  25. DIT University, Dehradun
  26. Dy Patil Medical College, Pune
  27. ERA’s Lucknow Medical College
  28. FAD International, Pune
  29. Heritage Academy, Kolkata
  30. HIT, Haldia
  31. Government College of Engineering, Amravati
  32. Galgotias University, Greater Noida
  33. Graphic Era University, Dehradun
  34. Guru Tegh Bahadur Institute of Technology, New Delhi
  35. Institute of Hotel Management, New Delhi
  36. Indian Institute Of Crafts & Design, Jaipur
  37. IIS (Deemed to be University), Jaipur
  38. Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi
  39. ILS Law College, Pune
  40. Indian School of Public Policy, New Delhi
  41. ILEAD college, Kolkata
  42. Integral University, Lucknow
  43. JD Birla Institute, Kolkata
  44. Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi (Foreign students)
  45. Jayoti Vidyapeeth Women’s University, Jaipur
  46. KIIT School of Law, Odisha
  47. K.J. Somaiya College of Engineering, Mumbai
  48. Karnataka Lingayat Education Society, Navi Mumbai
  49. Madras School Of Economics, Chennai
  50. Malaviya National Institute Of Technology, JAIPUR
  51. Maharashtra Institute of Technology, Pune
  52. Mithibai College, Mumbai
  53. N.L. Dalmia Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai
  54. N.H.L. Municipal Medical College (NHLMMC), Ahmedabad
  55. National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad
  56. National Institute of Fashion Technology (all campuses)
  57. National Institute of Food Technology Entrepreneurship and Management
  58. National Institute of Open Schooling
  59. National Institute of Technology, Calicut
  60. National Institute of Technology, Srinagar
  61. National Institute of Technology, Surat
  62. National Institute of Technology, Trichy
  63. National Institute of Technology, Karnataka
  64. National Law University, Odisha
  65. NMIMS, Mumbai
  66. North Eastern Regional Institute of Management, Guwahati
  67. Netaji Subhash Engineering College, Kolkata
  68. Institute of Management, Nirma University, Gujarat
  69. Pandit Lakhmi Chand State University of Performing and Visual Arts, Rohtak
  70. Pearl Academy, New Delhi
  71. People’s University, Bhopal
  72. Panjab University
  73. Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law, Patiala
  74. Ramaiah Dental College, Bengaluru
  75. SG Balekundri Institute of Technology, Karnataka
  76. SGT University, Gurugram
  77. SRM University, Chennai
  78. SRMS College of Engineering,Technology & Research, Bareilly
  79. School of Management Sciences, Lucknow
  80. Shoolini University, Himachal Pradesh
  81. SRMIST, Chennai
  82. St Stephens College, Delhi
  83. Swami Devi Dyal Hospital and Dental College, Haryana
  84. Symbiosis Institute of Technology
  85. Symbiosis Law School
  86. Symbiosis school of Economics
  87. Symbiosis school of Liberal Arts
  88. TERI School Of Advanced Studies, Vasant Kunj
  89. Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai
  90. UPES Dehradun
  91. Vellore Institute of Technology, Chennai
  92. Vivekanand Institute of Professional Studies, GGSIPU, Delhi

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