Resentment is brewing among students of National Institute of Technology (NIT), here against the administration for arbitrarily hiking the admission fee.
Students pursuing MSc in Physics and Chemistry have opposed the Institute’s decision to hike the fee structure five times for the academic session 2020-21. The students are persistently demanding that the decision should be revoked, keeping in view the financial conditions of their parents amid the ongoing COVID19 pandemic.
“The five time hike in fee is completely unacceptable. We can’t afford this arbitrary hike,” said a student. He complained that the NIT administration has arbitrarily given hike in fee leaving students in distress.
“The Institute has 31 seats for both MSc Physics and MSc Chemistry. In last two years the Institute conducted its own entrance exam for MSc physics and chemistry to fill the vacant seats left vacant after CCMN counseling,” the student said.
He said this year the students who have been selected for the MSc courses were told to pay Rs 50,000 as admission fee.
“The administration claims that these are self-financed seats. But in their advertisement notices they have not mentioned anything of this sort,” the students said.
Another student contested the claims of NIT administration and said the Institute was “lying to the students only to swindle the money under the garb of admission fee.”
“When these seats were not self-financed last year, how did it happen so this year?” the student asked. He said till last year, the admission fees was Rs 10,800 per semester and this year it is Rs 51,600 per semester which is five times the admission fee last year.
Registrar NIT, Kaisar Bukhari said all seats were “payment seats and the course is self-financed.” “It is not a hike but we have started this course this year only after getting the concurrence from finance committee and subsequent approval by Board of Governors,” the Registrar said.