Students across three BITS Campuses demand 15% fee hike rollback

NEW DELHI, MAY 7: Thousands of students across the three Campuses of Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) Pilani, Hyderabad and Goa are continuing with their protest against the 15 percent fee hike, calling it unreasonable.

Though, the campus heads have assured the students that their demands will be discussed with the administration, the students continue with their peaceful protest till their demands are met. The students have alleged that the fee has been hiked without any visible changes in either research facilities, quality of faculty and opportunities being offered to the students.

The students are claiming that since 2011, the fee structure in all three campuses has doubled. BITS increased its fee by nearly 56 percent in 2011 and since then it has increased every year, claim students. As per a release issued by the students body of the institute, “The semester fee has more than doubled from 62,400 in 2011 to 1,30,600 in 2017. There is now a real concern of affordability of education at BITS, both for the current and incoming batches.”

With the new fee structure being implemented, students are claiming that each student will end up paying nearly ₹2.10 lakh including tuition and hostel fee, against the ₹1.70 lakh compared to last year.

The BITS Pilani and Hyderabad campuses Directors have also addressed the students and assured a solution to the concerns raised by the students.

"We won't let the administration play their dirty games anymore. BITS Pilani is better than this. Time to show the institute what the students can do," tweeted one of the student.