Students at IIMC protest against unaffordable fee at institution

The wave of protests amongst students against university or institution administration for affordable education has now spread from the Jawaharlal Nehru University to the Indian Institute of Mass Communication where the students have been agitating against the unaffordable fee structure of the Journalism and Mass Communication programme. According to media reports, the students of IIMS have claimed that the IIMC administration has turned a deaf ear to the issues brought up by the students.

The students of IIMC have stated that their protest was against the high tuition fee and hostel and mess charges levied on them considering the fact that IIMC is a publically-funded institution. One of the students from the English Journalism programme said that Rs. 1, 68, 500 for a ten-month course along with additional hostel and mess charges is not affordable especially to the students who belong to poor or middle-class families. She further added that the students are forced to leave the programme after the first semester due to the high fee.

The fee for a course in Radio and TV Journalism is Rs. 1, 68, 500 while the fee for Advertising and PR is Rs. 1, 31, 500 while Hindi and English Journalism is Rs. 95, 000 and Urdu Journalism is Rs. 55, 500. Along with with this an additional mess and hostel fee of Rs. 6,500 for the female students and Rs. 4800 for the male students is taken by the institution very month.

Reports also suggest that the students of IIMC have also complained that note all the students admitted to the institution are placed in a hostel. For the past one week, the students have been trying to seek redressal for their issued through dialogue but the institution administration has turned a blind eye to the problems raised by the students stating that it is beyond the institution to alter the fee structure. And because of this, the students have taken to protests which are the only option.

Protesting students have stated that affordable education is every student’s right and media institutions cannot be allowed to provide education to only those people who can afford to pay fees in Lakhs.  Education, the students emphasized is a right and not a privilege.

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