Education, Careers & Professional News
Fee Hike To Hit B Com (H) Students Hard
The academic session is yet to start, but Delhi University already has some bad news for more 8,000 B Com (Hons) students in 41 colleges as a steep monthly Rs 1,000 fee hike could be on its way.
The reason: University Grants Commission (UGC) has refused to fund computer laboratories for B Com (Hons) students.
Replying to a detailed proposal sent by the DU commerce department on behalf of the affected colleges, the commission has said it is not in a position to finance the labs due to paucity of funds. The communication reached principals of several colleges on Thursday.
What has left university officials seething is the UGCs suggestion that colleges generate their own resources. Says Bhimsen Singh, principal, Kirorimal College, They have said generate your own resources. The only other source to generate income is students. Laboratories are a costly proposition, so each student will probably need to shell out something like Rs 1,000 a month. It can even be more.
The revised B Com (honours) syllabus was implemented from July 2004. This requires students to attempt a computer paper of 75 marks in each of the three under-graduate years. In the absence of adequate infrastructure, several colleges, in the first year, had chosen to teach just the theory part of the course.
Professor S R Khanna, head of DUs department of commerce, pointed out that It is a little surprising because the UGC had itself invited proposals in March. The revised syllabus cannot be implemented without laboratories. If the government is not willing, colleges will have no option but to recover the money from students.
Agrees R K Sharma, principal, Shyamlal College: The UGCs refusal at a time when the new session is about to start, has put us in a dilemma. I had sent a proposal for Rs 20 lakh for the Morning College and Rs 10 lakh for the evening college. If we try to raise money from 200-300 students, the backlash, especially with the students union elections just round the corner, will be terrible.
Some colleges like Hansraj, Sri Venkateswara and Deshbandhu already have a reasonably well-equipped computer laboratory.
But for others, it is a Hobsons choice between impossible hikes in fees or terribly overcrowded laboratories.
Says D Jagannathan, principal, Dyal Singh College, who had sent a proposal for Rs 7 lakh, The kind of money the new laboratories require, can never be recovered by a fee revision. The only option therefore, is to herd in all the 250 students into the existing laboratory, that can accommodate just 50 students.