Film and Television Institute of India ‘in principle’ decides to reduce entrance test fee
The FTII governing council in a special meeting on December 27, 2019 took the decision to reduce fees. The quantum of reduction would be decided by January 6, 2020.
The protests and hunger strike by the students of Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) paid off, for after fighting with the administration for three years, there is hope when the FTII governing council who met in Delhi for a special meeting decided to roll back ‘in principle’ the entrance test and the tuition fees hike.
Bhupendra Kainthola, director, FTII, said, “The FTII governing council in a special meeting on December 27, 2019, took an ‘in principle’ decision to reduce the JET fee for 2020. The quantum of reduction would be decided by January 6, 2020. Further, it was decided that the tuition fee for 2020 for regular courses in FTII would be reviewed. The review will be completed by March 6, 2020. A five-member committee headed by chairman, FTII governing council, has been set up to discuss both the issues and arrive at a decision.”
V Aadith and Rajashri Majumdar, the two student representatives and office-bearers of the FTII student association, had initiated an indefinite hunger strike on December 16, in protest of the “constant hikes in tuition fees and unreasonably high entrance exam fees”. They had demanded that a 10 per cent fee hike decision taken by the FTII governing council in 2008 be revoked, and that the JET (Joint Entrance Test) 2020 be put on hold, until entrance exam fees are reduced.
“We have been fighting on official levels for last 3 years with no result. GC has decided to roll back the entrance and tuition fee hike. The governing council has constituted a committee under chairman to plan the implementation for this year’s exam, which has been told that it will be completed within a week,” said Aadith over the phone. He said students demanded free education with stipend which is just 4% of the entire FTII budget and regarding the tuition fee and structure a committee will sit along a month’s time to decide different fee structure based on parental incomes.
“FTII is a place where people from different economical background come with no parental financial support, so there should be major reduction in fees at least and free education for lower economic strata,” said Rajashri.