DU English department allegedly increases PhD fee; students’ body condemns hike

NEW DELHI: The Department of English, Delhi University has allegedly increased the fee for PhD programmes to almost Rs 24,000 which was around Rs 2,000 last year. The Students’ Federation of India (SFI) condemned the hike demanding “fair” education for all.

Abha Dev Habib, an associate professor and a member of the Democratic Teachers’ Front (DTF) shared the news in a social media post and said that the fee hike for English PhD programmes is “unacceptable” and “unfortunate”.

The professor alleged that the fee for a PhD in English has been increased more than any other PhD programme. “The Department of English, DU has increased the fees for its PhD programme from Rs 1932 (last year) to an unprecedented Rs 23,968. The fees for all other streams for their PhD this year is close to Rs 4,400. For other Departments also, the fees has been doubled - which is also rather steep. However, the fee hike of the PhD programme, Dept of English involves a more than tenfold rise," she said in a Facebook post.

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The professor said that nothing can explain the inflation and called it “unacademic” reasoning that it will reduce diversity and impact students. Habib asserted that scholarships cannot be a substitute for affordable fee for every student and demanded withdrawal of the increased fee.

“This astronomical fee hike needs to be rolled back immediately. Such an attack on access to education and on diversity is against the letter and spirit of the Constitution of India and cannot be allowed to succeed. The students, teachers and non teaching employees along with parents will unitedly fight to roll back the fee hike,” the professor added.

Reacting to the hike, SFI said that it is an attack on public-funded education. “Rising education costs burden students and hinder accessibility to quality higher education. We strongly oppose the fee hike in Delhi University, for it is a blatant attack on public funded education,” it said in an official statement.

The students’ group added that the hike will put a financial stress on students while limiting their opportunities. “Education should be a right, not a privilege, and we urge for fair and affordable education for all,” SFI further added.