The Department of English of the University of Delhi (DU) has hiked the tuition fee for the PhD program- me of English from Rs 2,000 to 23,000 amounting to 1200% in- crease. This hike in fees has invited the ire of Students Federation of India (SFI) and Democratic Teachers Front, following which the fee was reduced to Rs 17,118 from Rs 23,000. However, academicians feel that even charging Rs 17,118 is unfair to the students.
All the other departments in DU have kept the fee for PhD courses at Rs 4,400. Abha DevHabib, secretary, Democratic Teachers' Front, DU, says, "The fee at Rs 17,118 is not justifiable as it is still a nine times increase of Rs 2,000 that was being charged earlier. Such an exponential increase in the fee structure opposes the public-funded character of a central university which is not a progressive step for the higher education ecosystem of the country.
Also, due to an exorbitant rise in the fee structure, students will be discouraged from pursuing re- search in Literature which will lead to the number of PhDs going down. In 2016, the Higher Education Financing Agency (HEFA) was set up to offer loans to universities. The manifold increase in the fee by the English department can well be attributed to this."
Published on - Times of India
Date - 20/11/2023
.png)
