Pune Campus Watch: SPPU hikes fees, students ask for concessions

A second-year MCom student of Ramakrishna More College in Akurdi said while she paid Rs 7,000 towards annual fees the first year, now has to pay Rs 18,865 in her second year.
“The pandemic may be over but its after-effects are not, especially financial. In such a scenario, paying three times the fees is nearly impossible for us. They should consider our case,” she said.

At Modern College of Arts, Science and Commerce in Shivaji Nagar, a second-year student of MSc Computer Science said the course fees increased from Rs 42,000 last year to Rs 71,000 this year. “We can understand a 10 or 20 per cent increase in fees but this is nearly double. And that too, just a year after the pandemic. What logic is this?” questioned the student.

Principal Dr Rajendra Zunjarrao said the fee hike is well within the prescribed norms of the university. “They may feel that the fee hike is too much because their comparison is not correct. They are comparing this year’s fees to last year’s when the college had decreased the actual fees due to the pandemic and stopped taking caution money and library fees. Before the Covid pandemic, the same course fee was above Rs 50,000. Now two things happened, we are no longer obliged to give the discount on fees or waive off caution money etc. because things have returned to normalcy. Plus, the university has allowed for a fee hike which was pending for several years. Hence the students are feeling this pinch. But at our college, we get corporate social responsibility (CSR) funds. So if any student struggles to pay fees, we can help them,” he said.

A student activist Kuldeep Ambekar said: “I have received at least two dozen requests from students and I have even written to the university officials. The students are ready to protest if their demands are not met,” he said.

Last evening, several student organisations staged a protest at the university campus demanding a rollback of the “excessive” fee hike.

Pro vice-chancellor Dr Sanjeev Sonawane reasoned that the fee hike has taken place after 10 years. He said that the university administration will meet the student representatives Monday to resolve the issue.