Ladakh slashes fees for PG courses by 50%

Jammu: Buckling under growing pressure, University of Ladakh (UoL) on Sunday revised its hiked fee structure for all postgraduate courses by 50 percent, thereby bringing a major relief for students studying in the arid region.

“We have revised the fee structure for all postgraduate courses by approximately 50 percent. The decision has been taken in the larger interest of the students,” Imteeaz Kacho, Registrar UoL.

To a query, the Registrar said that the University has currently been offering at-least 17 postgraduate courses and it has decided to start five to seven more courses from next academic session.

Earlier in the day, the admission fee committee of the university held its meeting today to deliberate on the issue of recent fee enhancement that brought widespread resentment among the students and their parents. “The committee decided to revise the fee for PG courses for the academic year 2022-23,” the university said in an order.

The revised fee structure for PG courses will fall in the range of Rs 13,170 to Rs 21,700 in the first semester while it will be Rs 12,210 to Rs 20,210 in the third semester.

Pertinently, various student organizations had threatened to start agitation against the “unprecedented” and “illogical” fee hike in PG courses. They submitted several memorandums to authorities, seeking revision in the fee structure.

Reacting to the development, Feroz Ahmad Khan, Chief Executive Councillor (CEC) Kargil, tweeted, “I thank Hon VC Prof SK Mehta for re-considering the issue of fee hike in the interest of students as assured yesterday. Prompt action on part of @ULadakh shows their commitment for providing accessible Hr. Edu. to students in remote Ladakh region.”

Earlier, Khan in a letter to Professor Surinder K. Mehta, Vice Chancellor UoL, had sought the latter’s intervention to revise the fee to a “reasonable amount” so that “the economically weaker section of the society could not be deprived of quality higher education”.

“The sole purpose of establishment of university is to provide affordable and accessible higher education to the students of Ladakh. However, I have been given to understand that the fee this year has been hiked over 150 percent.

A course with an annual fee of Rs 12,000 is currently being offered against an annual fee of Rs 30,000. This defeats the very purpose of establishment of a university in a remote and geographically challenging location such as Ladakh,” Khan had said in his letter after he was approached by different student groups.