Strike completes 4 days; UG students steer clear of fee hike protest at IIT

While the focus continues to remain on protesting students of Post Graduate (PG) and PhD courses, those in Under Graduate (UG) courses have stayed away so far even though the fee hike is applicable to them as well.

There is no protest by UG students whose tuition fee, which is the biggest component under the fee structure, remains the same.

There is also speculation over hike in the fee for new UG admissions.

“The fee structure for existing Post Graduate and PhD students has seen an increase with the hike in components other than the tuition fee. For new admissions, the increase is significant with a steep hike in tuition fee which is generally the biggest component,” said a student.

According to the students, while the increase for existing PG and PhD students is of Rs 7,450, for new admissions, it is Rs 32,450 for PG and Rs 9,950 for UG. “For existing UG students, the fee hike remains the same…It is a little over Rs 7,000 which is not a very big amount when compared with the total fee which is above Rs 1 lakh for UG students,” said a UG student by way of explaining why they haven’t joined the protest. “But there is no clarity on what the fee structure will be for new UG admissions,” said another student.

However, according to the institute administration, the fee structure of UG admissions is not likely to see any more hike than it is for the existing UG students.

An official from the administration, said on the condition of anonymity, “The tuition fee component for the first year UG students is decided centrally. And there is no update on hike in that component. In case of fee hike decided by the IIT-Bombay, for existing Under Graduate students, components other than the tuition fee have been increased which will be replicated for new admissions too.”