DSEU revokes fee waiver for reserved categories; cites fund crunch

The Delhi Skills and Entrepreneurship University (DSEU) has revoked a 20% fee concession for SC and ST students and a 10% waiver offered to students from the EWS category — a move that has raised concerns among the affected students.

The varsity had also hiked the fee recently. According to the university bulletin available on the website, the fee for Bachelor of optometry for first-year students has increased to ₹1.1 lakh per annum (including other annual charges) from ₹29,700 in 2023-2024.

The fees have been increased to the same amount in other courses such as BSc data analytics, for which the previous fee was ₹41,580 and Bachelor of computer science, for which it was ₹34,940 previously. “There will be an annual increase of 10% in the fees. The semester fee will be accordingly based on that,” the bulletin said.

DSEU vice-chancellor Ashok Kumar Nagawat told news agency PTI that the revocation of the concession for reserved category students has been effected based on the recommendations of the finance committee considering the funding crunch and financial burden on the varsity. He added that the committee is slated to meet next on July 31 and will discuss the matter.

“We have hiked the fees for some of the courses, particularly those which have a high demand in the market such as computer sciences and data analytics, to meet the students’ expenses. We are facing a funding crunch and by increasing the fees to bring it at par with what other skill-based institutions charge, we will ultimately be able to provide better facilities to the students. There are many courses that we offer which require specialised set-ups, laboratories and machines. The money will be utilised for providing these facilities,” said Nagawat.

The revised fee structure can be viewed in DSEU’s Information Bulletin 2024 on the website.

“DSEU, a state-established and funded institute has hiked the fees by up to nine times for the majority of its 80 courses, except the master’s programmes,” Aawaz, the varsity’s students’ body, said.

The body added that on June 17, the varsity issued a list of “fee defaulter” students with hundreds of names, barring them from sitting in the end-term examination and attending classes, the student’s body alleged. The list was released on an official WhatsApp group of the administration which was shared by the respective campus directors with students, Awaaz claimed.

“Dear all, please find the attached herewith list of students who have not paid their fees to date. These students are not allowed to sit for the end-term examination (even semester). Campuses are requested to take note of this (sic),” read the message forwarded to students from Ritu Sareen, Assistant Registrar (Academics). When about the allegations, Sareen said: “It is an official matter and I don’t want to comment on this.”

An EWS beneficiary who applied for admission this year said she wanted to avail the scholarship but was now forced to apply for a loan. “The varsity said they provide a 10% fee waiver to students from the EWS category. Neither am I getting a scholarship from the central government nor the state,” she said.

With inputs from PTI