Abha Dev Habib shared her concern about the increase in the fee for PhD programmes.
She wrote in a Facebook Post, “The Department of English, DU has increased the fees for its PhD programme from Rs 1932 (last year) to an unprecedented Rs 23,968. The fees for all other streams for their PhD this year are close to Rs 4,400. For other Departments also, the fees have been doubled – which is also rather steep. However, the fee hike of the PhD programme, Dept of English involves a more than tenfold rise.” Calling the step “unacceptable” and “unfortunate”.
The fee, which was approximately Rs 2,000 in the previous year, has skyrocketed to nearly Rs 24,000, a more than tenfold increase. This has sparked outrage among students, faculty, and education advocates. Increasing the fees on a publicly funded education university is blatant.
The professor adds, “This astronomical fee hike needs to be rolled back immediately. Such an attack on access to education and diversity is against the letter and spirit of the Constitution of India and cannot be allowed to succeed. The students, teachers and non-teaching employees along with parents will unitedly fight to roll back the fee hike.”
There can be several reasons for this increase. One could be the rising costs of running a PhD Program in English as it requires access to a wide range of literature, research materials and software. Another aspect can be the decline of funding to meet the running cost of the PhD programs.
The reason could be anything, but DU must come up with an explanation and transparency for the fee increase. The students and the broader academic community should have access to the reasoning behind this decision. As stated by Abha Dev, high fees could impede potential students from covering their expenses, particularly students from economically disadvantaged sections.
With less fellowship and external support to English Literature students, higher education must remain accessible to all deserving candidates.
Students’ group further adding to the context said “Education should be a right, not a privilege, and we urge for fair and affordable education for all.”
