Report writing on College students protest against Fee Hike

College Students Protest against Fee Hike Demanding Its Rollback

By Kalpesh Bhatt

Kanpur, 26th November: Education is the most important weapon to empower the youth, but what if the right to education is denied and access to better education remains only to those who are already privileged economically, around three hundred students gathered in the assembly ground of Kanpur Government Central College at 1PM on Monday and began a spontaneous sit-in protest after being denied to meet the Principal to submit an open letter against the fee hike. The protest went on till 5 PM in the evening until a few of the faculty members of the college came to receive the letter and assured that their demands will be addressed by the authorities.

The open letter submitted to the authorities of the college was signed by around two thousand and five hundred students, highlights the severe impact of the fee hike on students who are already suffering due to the after effects of the COVID pandemic and under the effects of steepened inflation. They demanded a complete rollback of the fee hike and another reason for discontent was due to the manner of introducing the fee hike without any consultation of the students’ representatives.

“The tuition fee along with other miscellaneous fees like hostel registration fee, examination, electricity, mess establishment, medical and insurance charges has been increased, earlier the fee was 12,460 for Intermediate degree and after the hike it went up to 28,365,”shared a student while explaining the other derogatory impacts of the fee hike. According to the information provided by the students the fee structure for Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees has increased by 45 per cent, in the recently declared fee circular of the college.  

The students have formed a student collective named College Student’s committee against fee hike to coordinate the protest. Several other demands like extension in the deadline for the payment of fees, increase in fellowships and scholarships for higher studies and transparency in the expenses incurred out of the fees paid by the students were put forth by the committee apart from a complete rollback of the fee hike. The committee also went on to appeal to the students to join the protest, also not to pay the fees until the authorities address the situation properly.