Bits Pilani students intensify protest over alleged fee hike

Hyderabad: Students of Bits Pilani, Rajasthan intensified their protests by launching a hunger strike on the second day of their protest on Monday, over alleged fee hike.

Students in Hyderabad campus, clad in black, with ribbons on their arms, holding placards, are peacefully sitting and protesting outside their classrooms. The movement against fee hike was also supported by sister campuses in Goa and Hyderabad.

The Hyderabad campus witnessed the participation of over 1,200 students as they marched from their hostels to the academic block where they sought answers from the director, deans and several key faculty members.

The annual fee increase was a cause of concern for the students since a few years but the recent release of the fee structure came out as the last straw leading to wide-scale protests across all campuses.

The protests were broadcasted live on a Facebook group, comprising over 30,000 Bitsians — the current students and alumni which further gained attention on various social media platforms.

Hundreds of students decided to spend night in the auditorium with their books and laptops, to continue their preparations for the ongoing end-semester exams.

A student who participated in the protest said: “The tuition fee has been hiked by 15 per cent per annum consistently since the last few years. A student entering in 2018-19 will now have to pay '1,60,000 as tuition fee against '89, 000 four years ago. This is not inclusive of hostel, mess and other advances collected by the university. The inclusive figure would come over '2 lakhs.”

Another student, on conditions of anonymity told this newspaper, “Not only we want the fee hike to be rolled back, but also want the fee to be constant for a particular batch.”