BHU Fee Hike: University forms committee to look into issues raised by students

NEW DELHI: Banaras Hindu University (BHU) has formed a committee to look into the issues raised by students regarding the “proposed fee structure” in some programmes from the academic session 2022-23. BHU students have been protesting against the fee hike while the university had termed the fee-hike claims as “baseless”.

“The university has time and again stated that no revision has been made effective for the current students of BHU and they will continue to pay the existing fee till their course of study is completed. The new structure is only applicable to the candidates taking admission in academic session 2022-23 onwards. However, some students have approached the administration and made representations regarding the proposed fee structure and hostel charges. In light of these representations, vice-chancellor professor Sudhir Kumar Jain has constituted a committee to look into these issues,” read an official statement from BHU.

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The panel is chaired by Professor Yashwant Singh, director, Institute of Agricultural Sciences. The members of the committee include Professor A S Raghubanshi, director, Institute of Environment and Sustainable Development; Professor Madhoolika Agrawal, Dean, Faculty of Science; Professor A K Nema, Dean of Students; and Professor Abhimanyu Singh, Chief Proctor. In addition, Dr Pushyamitra Trivedi, deputy registrar, academic, is the member secretary of the committee.

The committee will examine and apprise the fees structure as proposed and implemented in the academic session 2022-23 and onwards and will also look into the representations made by student groups. Moreover, the panel will also establish communication with the selected students of representative groups.

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On October 15, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad Banaras Hindu University (ABVP BHU) unit called for an indefinite strike against the fee-hike. A huge torch procession was taken out from the Student Union Bhawan to Singh Dwar as part of the indefinite agitation by the ABVP BHU unit on October 20.

On the other hand, BHU clarified in a series of tweets that the increase in fees is only for students taking admission this year and current students will not be affected.