Mumbai: A week after participating in a relay hunger strike to protest against a recently introduced fee hike, students of the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT-B) suspended their strike on Friday. This move comes after a meeting with the fee hike committee, which has proposed a partial roll back of fees.
As per a statement released by the IIT-B Students Against Fee Hike, the institute’s fee hike committee has proposed that hostel fee for all the students will be reduced by ₹1,500, tuition fees for MTech new entrants will be reduced by ₹15,000, academic fee for all the students excluding the tuition fees will be reduced by ₹550. It further states that tuition fees for PhD new entrants will be reduced by ₹1,250 and the one-time fee component for new entrants will be reduced by ₹1,100. This proposal will now be presented to the Board of Governors (BoG) before it is accepted, then implemented.
“We consider this proposal by the administration a partial but substantial victory as we could achieve at least some monetary relief to our fellow students in the form of reduction in fees. The students of the institute came together and exhibited extraordinary resolve during this phase,” said one of the protesting students.
This agitation started in early July, when the IIT-B administration first proposed a fee hike of nearly 35% for all their postgraduate programmes. The authorities highlighted how the hike was approved by the BoG nearly three years back, but its implementation was halted due to the pandemic. Students, however, stated that the fee hike is nearly 45% in certain courses, and called the increase in fees unfair.
In an open house discussion held in the last week of July, the college administration and students, the administration stated that roll back of fees is not possible which prompted students to intensify their protests. The deadline to pay one part of the fees for the current academic year was on August 9, and students have clarified that they will continue their protest until the management rolls back the fee hike.
Students have also demanded that the institute fee committee request the BoG to reconsider their previous circular proposing annual 5% hike in fees. “We are waiting for a response from the institute on all our demands. This victory is only a victory once the BoG accepts the partial roll back. If the institute does not respond to this by August 19, we will start our protests all over again,” said another student. The IITB administration did not release any statement on this topic on Friday.
