Mumbai: Hunger strike on; IIT-B justifies 35 per cent hike in fees

Following the ongoing protests and hunger strike by students and research scholars over fee hike the Indian Institute of TechnologyBombay IITB on Sunday issued a statement justifying its stand The institutersquos deputy director finance and external affairs made a presentation to the students to explain where fees are being spent and what fraction of IITrsquos expenses are covered by feesAfter almost 15 days of protest students got a minor relief as administration earlier this week reduced R1800 from the Semester Mess Advance component of the fee structure However students continued with a relay hunger strike starting Saturday demanding a complete rollback of fee hikeAlso read IITB technique can spot killer plastics in the airldquoThe hostel amenities fees were already included in the Semester Mess Advance component However the hostel amenities fee was also collected under the semester fees under the new fee structure resulting in double collection of fees for the same thing We brought out the issue during the open house on July 26 and the administration has since corrected this error Even though this reduces the overall cost amount our protest is not over yetrdquo one of the protesting students saidThe institute stated that students who have economic difficulties including those whose stipends are delayed by the sponsoring agencies will be provided with a way to get a deferral of fees IITB also declared that it will be working on scholarships for Masters students with financial restraints along the lines of scholarships for UG students In addition the students have been allowed to pay the semester mess advance in two instalments to avoid a significant burden at the start of the semesterThe statement issued by the institute read ldquoWe are cognisant of the fact that several of our students have economic challenges at home and we are fully supportive of such students Following the open house IITBombay has taken several steps to address student concerns Four student members from the elected student body have been added as permanent invitees to the fee committeerdquoldquoWhile no one enjoys paying more than what they used to be charged before it is also imperative that an institute continues to adjust its charges accordingly to stay alive and grow to serve the students of today and tomorrow equally wellrdquo it addedNearly 100 students at the premier institute in Powai area are currently protesting to raise their voices against the exorbitant fee hike in Masters and PhD courses at the beginning of July According to information provided by students the fee structure for both is increased by 35 per cent for the autumn semesterMeanwhile the institute said ldquoA small but very vocal number of IITBombay students have been protesting against the recent fee hike The IITBombay administration had a meeting open house with students on July 26 to explain the reasons behind the fee hike and get studentsrsquo input on any issues In brief the bulk of IITBombayrsquos funding comes from the government with fees being only 8 per cent of our revenue While tuition fees can never cover our overall costs it is the expectation that the hostelrelated fees will at least be comparable to the hostelrelated expenses incurred These operational expenses are well above the hostel fees we were collecting earlier and even with the increased fees the operational expenses are still more than the fees collectedrdquoThe total amount that students pay for hostel stay was around Rs 2000 per month earlier which has now increased to around R2700 per month This includes room rent electricity and water charges and medical fees Meanwhile tuition fees for current PhD students are Rs 2500 per semester and Rs 5000 per semester for new students while for new MTech students it increased from Rs 5000 per semester to Rs 30000 per semesterMeanwhile PhD stipend ranges between Rs 31000 to Rs 34000 per month while the MTech stipend is Rs 12400 per monthRs 30000New semester fee for MTech as opposed to earlier Rs 5000