Following JNU's #FeesMustFall campaign, the students of Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) will stage a protest against the hike in the tuition fees and hostel and mess charges. The protest which will begin at 1 pm on Tuesday will be an indefinite one.
"The fees in IIMC is really high, despite being a public-funded institution. The fees here are hiked every year by 10 per cent," says Hrishikesh Sharma, a student. IIMC is an autonomous society under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. "A 10-month-long course here costs around Rs 168,500. On top of that, we pay a hefty hostel fee and mess fee. In total, it costs a student somewhere around Rs 3 Lakh to finish their course," says Hrishikesh.
The students also raised the issue of insufficient hostel space. "The hostels here can accommodate only around 32 students in an academic year. Around 70 of the remaining are forced to look for accommodations outside. However, the hostels are as expensive as the outside accommodations. On top of that, our mess charges will be hiked from Rs 3,000 to Rs 4,000 from the second semester," says Hrishikesh.
While the students tried to have a dialogue with the administration about the same, they were apparently asked to 'concentrate on studies'. "The strike will, however, go on," says Hrishikesh. "JNU's #FeesMustFall is a benchmark for us. We want media education to be affordable," he adds.
