Jawaharlal Nehru University is unique and renowned for being the most affordable and inclusive university in the country. In the year 2018, there was one new school introduced, that is, University School of Engineering which currently offers a five-year dual degree programme in Computer Science and Engineering and in Electronics and Communications Engineering. The two programmes were started during the 2018-19 academic session with an intake of 50 students each, which during the current academic year has been increased to 63 students each.
Despite so many students enrolled, there are no proper infrastructural facilities. Due to the lack of dedicated infrastructure, students are made to shift frequently between the Convention Centre, SCSS (School Of System and Computer Sciences), and SPS (School of Physical Sciences) for their classes. They don’t even have a quality library facility to study.
Disproportionate Fee Structure
Despite the patent lack of infrastructure available, they are currently forced to pay “tuition fees” amounting to ₹62,500. In addition to that, they are paying more than four thousand rupees as institution fees. As per the e-prospectus 2019-20 (amounts are in INR):
| Purpose | MSc/MCA | B Tech |
| Tuition fees | 216.00 (Annual) | 62,500.00 (income above 5lakh GEN/OBC ) 20,833.00 (income 1 to 5lakh GEN/OBC) per sem. |
| Sports fee+ Cultural fee | 33.00 (Annual) | 2,500.00 per sem. (as student activity fee) |
| University development fee | 1,000.00 per sem. | |
| Registration fee* | 5.00 (as enrolment fee) | 1,000.00 per sem. |
| Examination fee* | — | 1,000.00 per sem. |
| Admission fee | 5.00 | 1,000.00 (one time) |
*in 2018-19 fee submission was annual for BTech students.
Despite this massive fee, a sum of ₹11,000 is being charged for BTech students as the per semester hostel fees (without any justification) as opposed to the other Bachelor’s and Master’s students currently paying only ₹1,350 (on average) as hostel fee with the same facility.
₹11,000 per semester for rooms that are forcefully accommodating 3 to 4 students each.
₹11,000 per semester for hostel blocks that either don’t have common rooms or the common rooms are unfit for use.
₹11,000 per semester for hostels located extremely far from academic block, lacking bus or rickshaw connectivity to the rest of the campus.
₹11,000 per semester for hostels that lack parking facilities.
₹11,000 per semester for hostels where rainwater accumulates and there is poor drainage, especially in front of Block A.
₹5,000 annual payment as student activity fee but no infrastructure for sports or other recreational activities.
In its present form, this fee structure is nothing but commercialization of the Indian education system. Instead of arriving at a balance between quantity, quality and equity in the education system, this is promoting a more elitist and pro-corporate thrust.
A Clear Case Of Commercialisation
JNU is a public-funded central university. It was established with the idea to cater to all sections of students in the country. But what we see now, especially for the BTech course is that there is a clear push to commercialise education and make education a privilege only for certain sections. The case of BTech students in JNU is not in isolation, we can see a clear push at the policy level to privatise and commercialise education.
Take the case of DNEP – the Draft National Education Policy. While the DNEP, pays more importance to higher education and research than has hitherto been given, it builds castles in the air instead of assessing the impact of growing commercialisation and privatisation at this level of education. It sets up an ambitious GER (Gross Enrolment Ratio) target of 50% by 2035 but hopes that the target will be achieved without binding the Union Government to funding commitments.
Its policy recommendations are based on one-sided diagnoses derived entirely from the NITI AAYOG’s Action Agenda. It replicates currently identified evils by advocating increased private investment, uniform regulatory and assessment parameters for public-funded and private Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs), private-funding of institutional infrastructure through corporate philanthropy and capital markets, greater contingency in teaching appointments and career progression leading to more professional insecurity and iniquity, and the shutting-down of large affiliating-type universities – thus negating the potential to pool resources and improve the standards of affiliated colleges.
Clearly, the JNU administration seeks to isolate the students from the School of Engineering from the rest of the University and thus alienate them from JNU’s culture built over decades of students’ struggle. By cocooning them in an area that is lacking any canteen, laundry, or stationery facilities, by not providing them with any engineering-specific placement facilities, the administration thus seeks to inculcate in them a feeling of lack of ownership over this university. This exercise in exploitation and repression of student rights are to be condemned and resisted by the entire student community of this university in the strongest possible terms.