Teachers and students on Wednesday criticised Delhi University for an ‘unprecedented’ hike in PhD courses’ fees. The fee hike in the English Department has been more than tenfold — over 1200 per cent.

“Delhi University’s Department of English has increased the fees for its PhD programme from Rs 1,932 to an unprecedented Rs 23,968”, various teachers claimed.
A teacher claimed students were informed of the fee hike very late and this was not mentioned in Bulletin.

However, there was no immediate response from the university administration.
Meanwhile, left affiliated student group –SFI Delhi University strongly condemned the hike in fees of the English department.

“Rising education costs burden students and hinder accessibility to quality higher education. We strongly oppose the fee hike at Delhi University, for it is a blatant attack on publicly funded education. The move limits opportunities and exacerbates financial stress on students and their families. Education should be a right, not a privilege, and we urge for fair and affordable education for all,” it said in a statement.
In a post on Facebook, Assistant Professor of Physics at Miranda House, Abha Dev Habib said the Department of English of Delhi University (DU) has increased the fees for its PhD programme from Rs 1932 (last year) to an unprecedented Rs 23,968.

She termed the hike of over 1200 per cent “unacceptable and unfortunate”.
“Nothing can explain this kind of inflation. It is unacademic as this fee hike will reduce diversity and adversely impact students. Scholarships and concessions cannot be a substitute for affordable fees for all,” she wrote on Facebook
The fees for all other streams for their PhD this year are close to Rs 4400, she further claimed.

“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.

She demanded that the fee hike needs to be rolled back immediately.
“Such an attack on access to education and on 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,” she added.

Another associate professor expressed concern for the fee hike, saying this shows the complicity of the University administration towards students who cannot afford to pay this huge amount.

“One must also question as to how these decisions are taken (arbitrarily and without any discussion in statutory bodies). One wonders if the matter was even discussed in the Department or whether the Head took a unilateral decision,” Vijaya Venkataraman said.
She claimed that This shows the utter callousness of those behind this decision and the total disregard for those students who might have worked so hard towards getting a coveted seat.

“Students were informed of this fee hike very late this does not figure in the PhD Bulletin and were asked to pay the fees and take the seat or leave it,” she said.