Fee hiked for all first-year DU students in UG, PG and PhD programmes

All the first-year Delhi University students enrolled in first-year undergraduate, postgraduate and PhD programmes as well as foreign students seeking admission from the 2024-2025 academic session will observe a hike in the fees of their respective colleges.

The new fee structure for the academic calendar that begins in August was approved by Vice Chancellor Yogesh Singh in June. Speaking with indianexpress.com Singh said, “It is a usual hike in the fees done by DU colleges and every year we raise the fee by 5-6 per cent to meet the inflation.”

“The hike has been affected only for the first-year students currently by university guidelines,” a senior official at the Faculty of Technology told news agency, PTI.

The varsity has raised several components of the fee structure, including tuition fees, students’ welfare fund, development fee, facilities and services charges, and economically weaker section support fund.

However the move has been criticised by teachers and members of the Executive Council, who argue that the fee hikes are meant to repay loans from the Higher Education Financing Agency (HEFA).

Changes in DU fee structure

In accordance with the new fee structure, the course fee for first-year BTech students has been raised by 3.70 per cent, i.e. from Rs 2.16 lakh to Rs 2.24 lakh. The contribution share for the Delhi University Students Union (DUSU) has been removed from the fee structure of the department.

The DUSU contribution has also been removed from the LLB and MBA fee structure while for the rest of the UG and PG courses, the contribution has been increased from Rs 20 to Rs 40.

Similarly, fees for the five-year Integrated Law Programmes for the academic have been hiked by 5 per cent, i.e. from Rs 1.90 lakh to Rs 1.99 lakh.

The fees of the four-year Integrated Teachers Education Programme (ITEP), which replaced B.EL.ED under the Faculty of Education, has been increased to Rs 57,400.

The revision in the components of the fee structure of PhD courses, has resulted in a 60.22 per cent hike in the overall fees with scholars required to pay Rs 7,130 from the upcoming session as compared to the previous fees of Rs 4,450.

The fee has also been raised for foreign students seeking admissions in various programmes of the varsity, DU Dean Admissions, Haneet Gandhi confirmed to PTI.

Meanwhile, foreign nationals seeking admission in MA Hindu Studies at Delhi University will have to pay a reduced course fee. The fees for students from SAARC countries has been reduced from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 50,000 and Rs 1 lakh from Rs 2 lakh for students from non-SAARC countries.

The Tibetan applicants will, however, be exempted from paying university registration fees and additional fee payable to colleges and departments as foreign students.