The board of Governors hereby said that Students at the NIFT (National Institute of Fashion Technology) not just in Hyderabad but all the other 14 centres across India had stalled classes on Monday to protest the sudden fee hike.
The sources revealed that, while the hike for the recent batches is to be tuned of from 5 to 10% which shall depend of each courses, the senior most batch of 2010 of Bachelors in Design and Bachelor;s in Fashion Technology at NIFT Hyderabad is of 38%.
Students who are set to graduate in 2014 from NIFT Hyderabad campus were shocked to hear the announcement because the tuition fee for senior students which was 40,000 earlier has now been revised to 75,000.
A student said "It is a Government Institute under aegis of the Ministry of Textiles. In each course, around 50% seats are reserved for SC, ST and OBC students. A large number of students also came from economically humble backgrounds and have taken a loan to fund their studies. An this behavior of announcing the hike with no sign informed before has now left many of us to reconsider their decision of joining a government institute."
The faculties have called for a meeting with the students to resolve this issue. E Venkat Reddy, IFS and joint director of the NIFT Hyderabad said "Students will be at loss if they miss even a single day's class due to the continuous process of evaluation and testing. We are in the process of collecting their representations and forwarding them to the head office. The decision by the board will be final."
Though students from economically weaker sections, whose parents earn less than Rs 4 lakh per annum, are offered merit-cum-means scholarships in the form tuition fee waiver by around 50 per cent, the numbers benefiting from the scheme are quite low.
Classes will resume though the decision by the Board of Governors is pending, as students are scheduled to appear for examinations in May, he added.
What will be the final decision? Will students be satisfied by the result? Will the board achieve its target of hiking the fees? Will students protest go in vain? Lets See.... Keep visiting for more updates.