Anna University’s move to increase fees for different research activities has not gone down well with students.
The university’s Centre for Research on February 18 has published a circular on the revised fee structure for different research activities including synopsis submission, institute renewal and sent it to all its affiliated colleges.
As per the revised fee structure, now the research scholars will have to pay at least Rs 8000 for synopsis submission while it was Rs 6500 earlier, for resubmission of thesis they will have to pay Rs12,500 instead of Rs 10,000 and for changing the category the students will have to cough up at least five times more. Earlier, the university charged only Rs500 for changing category but now it has been hiked to Rs 2500. Similarly, for institute recognition, the research scholars will have to pay Rs 1,50,000 instead of Rs 1,00,000. For supervisor recognition, the PhD and MS students will now have to pay twice the amount they were paying earlier.
Students are alleging that the fee hike will pinch their pockets badly. “The fee hike for different research activities ranges from 20 per cent to 100 per cent. Most of the students pursuing PhD are either unemployed or working as teachers in small institutes. The fee hike will definitely affect us,” said a student of an affiliated college.
According to university officials, at least 13000 students are pursuing PhD in Anna University and its affiliated colleges. “We enrolled in AU as we cannot afford the fees of private universities. Authorities should be a bit considerate while hiking the fees,” said S Shravan, another student.
However, the varsity authorities have claimed the fee hike decision has been taken as it was need of the hour. The hike was necessary to meet the expenses incurred for running the different PhD courses.
“We incur expenses when we call externals for evaluating the thesis paper, viva and other activities. Like private universities, we have not mindlessly increased the research fees. The hike has been done after much discussion,” said a senior official of the university.
