NEW DELHI: The elected class representatives of second and third-year batches of St Stephen's College on Wednesday wrote a letter to the institution's governing body alleging that the college is charging unreasonable fees from students.
The student representatives said despite online classes the college has increased the Internet resource center (IRC) and IT fees and is charging library and water and electricity charges. The IRC and IT charge last year was Rs 1,200, while this year it is Rs 2,000.
"Till date, we have not observed institutional support for online classes apart from providing ad-hoc professors with institutional IDs to access GSuite (freely accessible for educational institutions). Professors and students have been incurring high costs for internet connections and devices. Hence, the online education cannot be cited as a justification for an enhanced IRC fee, as it does not appear that any hardware, software or training support has been provided so far," read the letter.
"Year after year, students continue to be charged an 'Establishment Fee' without any transparency around its use. This semester we have been charged a hefty Rs 9,600 as part of the same. We are observing the burden of multiple appointments which are not UGC sanctioned or approved being passed on to students," the representatives said.
"Our students' fees are about 2.5-3 times more than the average college fees in DU. Whereas we get exactly the same funding as any other trust college in DU viz 95 per cent grant from UGC. The total annual fees for a non-resident student in Hindu or LSR is about 15,000, whereas in Stephen’s it is about 42,000. These figures need to be verified," said Nandita Narain, a teacher at St.Stephens and ex-DUTA president.