Recently, many government educational institutions in Uttar Pradesh were in the news over students’ protests against massive fee hikes. These hikes are not an isolated concern arising in a handful of institutes. They are the direct result of the National Education Policy, 2020 which aims to withdraw government support from public education and push this sector towards privatization and commercialization. To accomplish this, the government constituted a body – Higher Education Financing Agency (HEFA) which will be providing “loans” to institutions for building infrastructure like hostels, buildings, classrooms, labs, etc., marking a shift from the grant model of education. Now the question arises- who will repay this loan? Of course, the students through enormous fees. The universities will impose huge sums as fees, introduce ‘autonomous’ courses in order to generate income, and will even contract out its infrastructure to private players. We must consider how many premier institutes are already inaccessible to the vast majority of students from marginalized communities due to the prohibitive costs of higher education. As this process continues, more and more aspiring students will be excluded from higher education opportunities.
Last year, the University of Allahabad hiked its fees by 400% for all courses. For instance, the fees for undergraduate courses which were Rs. 975/year, have been hiked over 300% to Rs. 4,151. Despite student protests, social media campaigns, a hunger strike, and even an attempt by a group of students to self- immolate by pouring kerosene on themselves, the varsity forcibly implemented this anti-student policy. This shows how the government wants education to become a commodity for sale in the market which will bring profit to the country’s rich moneybags. When the protesting students put their concerns stated that there is a clear direction from the Government of India for the universities to generate funds on their own and reduce reliance on the government. Accordingly, around one- tenth of the HEFA loan must be repaid yearly by the borrowing institute, which will force it to divert resources and attention from activities it would otherwise have spent money and time on. In a University where the dropout rate was already high even when there were low fees, imagine the plight of students when this fee structure will come into effect. And the Modi Government, through its anti-student education policy has further worsened the already dismal state of the University.
In August 2022, the students of Banaras Hindu University (a central institute), had to face a 100-500% increase in fees of various courses and hostels. When questioned, the BHU administration in order to save their face tried to fool the students by stating that the decision to implement a “nominal increase” was taken before the academic session 2019- 20 started but could not be implemented due to COVID-19 pandemic and the proposed fee hike would not impact the current batches studying at the varsity. But this fight against privatization of education is not limited to a “batch”. This fight is against any attempt which aims to make education inaccessible for many. This trend is worrisome as earlier students from SC/ST/OBC backgrounds or other marginalized sections were able to receive quality education in these central universities. With the increase in fees, it will be these students who will be pushed out of education first, thereby impacting the overall progress of the community.
Since the past few years, the University of Lucknow is vigorously introducing self-financed seats in various UG and completely self-financed. The result is that many students have to pay every semester an additional fee of Rs. 2,000 to Rs. 5,000 per subject. It must be noted here that the main source of income for LU is self-financed courses of which the common students have to bear the brunt as the government grants only Rs. 50 crore as fund. The University’s annual budget for 2023-24 is Rs. 223.32 crore far short of the Rs. 356.02 crore expenditure. In order to make up for this budget deficit, LU is continuously imposing arbitrary and unreasonable fees in the form of laboratory fee, admission fee, back paper fee etc. Beginning from this year, LU has implemented a centralised admission process for all its 545 affiliated colleges where all admission seekers would have to pay Rs. 100 as registration fee. Is this the NEP model that Modi government wants to implement? Looting students at every possible step?
Similarly, in various government educational institutes of Uttar Pradesh, concerted attempts have been made to implement sky-rocketing fees such as in Gorakhpur University, or in Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj University where the Vice-Chancellor declared a 25% increase in examination fees in 2021. Seen together, NEP and HEFA loans instead of grants from the government will make massive fee hikes the norm in educational institutes that access such loans or adopt the new policy. In this system, nothing dissuades the government from withdrawing from its responsibility to invest in education. Therefore, all government-funded institutions could quickly become self- financed institutes. This transition would be a massive attack on the very idea of a public university and undo any inclusivity achieved so far in education. NEP and HEFA pave the way for exactly such an unwelcome outcome.
