OU cancels PhD tuition fee after protests

Hyderabad: In response to mounting protests from research scholars, OU on Tuesday decided to cancel the PhD tuition fee whose deadline was set for March 30. This decision comes after the deans of several departments notified students that failure to pay the fees would result in withholding examination hall tickets for PhD coursework.

The protest was initiated by research scholars on March 23. On Tuesday, Vice-chancellor Prof. D. Ravindar, registrar Prof. Lakshminarayana, and officer on special duty (OSD) Prof. Reddy Nayak spoke with the scholars and resolved the issue.

"Last year, OU decided to hike PhD tuition fees by Rs 2,000 for departments such as arts, social sciences, commerce, management, law, and education, and by Rs 25,000 for departments including engineering, technology, science, pharmacy, and informatics. These fee increases were implemented without a justification," said Akhil Boddupalli, a research scholar.