'WE ARE LIVING AS TENANTS'

Most IITs have raised the fees for postgraduate and research programmes as well as hostel and mess charges leading to protests in IIT Bombay.

- Sheena Sachdeva

On July 19, a group of PhD students gathered near the main administrative block of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay to protest against fee hike. For postgraduate and research programmes, the per semester fee for 2022-23 had risen sharply O anywhere from 53% to 170%, depending on the category.

"All we are asking is why the institution is pressuring students to bear the burden of the withdrawal of subsidy, leading to round 50% fee hike for masters and PhD scholars," said a PhD scholar and a member of the students' collective, Ambedkar Periyar Phule Study Circle (APPSC) IITB, asking not to be named. During the open house, it was informed that IIT Bombay was granted a loan of Rs. 1,000 crore by the Higher Education Finance Agency (HEFA). Students have sought details on how much IIT Bombay is yet to repay.

In 2017, the education ministry and Canara Bank set up HEFA, a non-banking finance company) to radically change how higher education institutions finance their expansion. Capital grants from the budget were replaced by infrastructure loans from HEFA; unlike grants, the principal amounts have to be repaid from the institution's own income. Since public educational institutions are not profitmaking companies, the HEFA loans have stretched their finances, even those of the IITs.

While IIT Bombay saw the maximum turmoil over fee-hike, including a hunger strike, the issue isn't limited to a single institution. Students from across the old and new IITs - Delhi, Guwahati, Mandi, Gandhinagar - have reported fee hikes in the 20%-50% range for new entrants and enrolled students from this year.