The Ambedkarite Students’ Association has responded to the Tata Institute of Social Sciences’ clarification on why they are charging fees despite the students only attending online classes — claiming they are not happy with all the answers. The administration had sent a circular to the students with explanations as to why they were charging fees for the lab, studio, medical insurance, health care centre, IC cards, computers, Students’ Union fee among others. They also clarified issues regarding the extension of fee payment deadline, fee installments, financial assistance, semester registration, accessing TISSOL materials and attending online classes.
In their response, the ASA demanded to know why the institute was levying fees for the development fund when they were already charging tuition and IT/ Computer fees. Secondly, they argued that for second-year students, there would be only block placement so why would they need to pay for fieldwork charges.
The Institute had also stated as a reason for many of the points that they were hoping to conduct activities by the end of the semester which is why they were charging the fees. To this, the ASA said, “The Institute can't ask for funds when they are unsure of the activities that may take place at the end of the semester. The pandemic has affected even the student community and their families as well so those who cannot afford to pay money should not be asked for fee payment with strict deadlines.”
The students conducted a long-drawn protest when the Institute made the results of the semester inaccessible to students who hadn’t paid their fees. The Institute eventually made the results accessible but several students were unable to see their results. The ASA made a mention of this in their statement as well, “Since the institute has given the provision to pay fees of previous semester later, OBC students should be allowed to access their results,” they said.
