Osmania University Students Protest Fee Hike, VC Assures Reimbursement for Low-Income Students

After Osmania University proposed a fee hike for its engineering and postgraduate courses, several students have been protesting against it. Students have warned officials if the hike is not rolled back, they will resort to a bandh. University officials claim that the hike is just a correction as the fee was not increased from the past 15 years. The hiked fee, claims administration, will provide infrastructure to the students and meet the salaries of faculties for self-finance courses that have been doubled.

As per reports, the revised fee for AI engineering is at Rs 1.20 lakh; mining engineering up to Rs 1 lakh, regular engineering fee hiked from Rs 18,000 to Rs 35,000 and for self-finance courses in science, the fee is now up to Rs 75,000. The MA in Arts and social science has been raised from Rs 2,800 to Rs 14,000 and for self-finance courses, it is now Rs 21,000 from Rs 3,800. MSc course fee increased from Rs 20,490 to Rs 3,800 and MCom to Rs 30,000 and MBA to Rs 35,000.

Students claim that the fee hike, that too at a time of Covid-19, is unjustified. Students protests led by ABVP has around 300 students demanding a reduction in the fee. The university administration, however, assured that students from lower-income backgrounds will be able to avail the same fee through the fee reimbursement scheme.

Prof Ravinder meanwhile said that only a certain section of students are protesting the fee hike. “Certain groups with vested interests are intentionally orchestrating these protests while actual students haven’t asked a single question,” he told a leading media house.

The inspector of Osmania University police station, L Ramesh Naik said that the varsity’s chief security officer, Ganapathu Jadhav had filed an FIR against eight members of the ABVP.

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