Delhi University: St. Stephen’s College Students Raise Concerns Over Fee Hike Amid COVID 19 Pandemic

Delhi University’s St. Stephen’s College students are raged about the unreasonable and unjustified college fees charged by the college authorities amid COVID 19 pandemic.

The class representatives of second and third-year students of St. Stephen's College have written a letter addressed to the Governing body of the college.

In the letter, they complained that the college is charging unreasonable fees for on-campus facilities that are not being utilized.

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The letter also mentioned that the students are being charged INR 2,000 for the Internet Resource Centre (IRC) and IT but no support from the college was provided for the online classes.

INR 1,200 was charged as a fee for IRC and IT for the last semester. The DU affiliated college has increased the fee compared to the previous semester.

St. Stephen’s College also charged the students INR 2,400 for electricity and water and INR 900 for the library while none of them are currently being used.

Also Read: St. Stephen's College Admission 2020

An 'Establishment fee' of INR 9,600 was also charged to students which has been unaccounted for.

The students complained that St. Stephen’s College is collecting this establishment fee year after year but no transparency about its use is provided to students.

The letter also stated that the students are carrying the burden of multiple appointments that are not sanctioned or approved by the UGC but being passed on to students.

The last date to pay the fee is announced as November 20. The students also requested St. Stephen’s College to extend the deadline.

St. Stephen’s College: Gradual Fee Hike

The students of St. Stephen’s College also stated that the overall fee structure is gradually increasing when compared to other colleges of Delhi University.

Between the academic year 2018-19 and 2019-20, the mess fees have increased to 65 percent and the establishment fee has increased 33 Percent.

The average fee structure for three years at St. Stephen’s College is INR 1,36, 681.

The following tabulation gives the increase in the percentage of fees compared to the previous year at St. Stephen’s College according to the data shared by students on social media.

The average fee structure for three years at Jesus and Mary College, the other Christian minority college affiliated to DU is INR 15,000 per year.

For hostel students who haven't vacated their rooms have observed a rise in their fees.

The college campus and hostel have been shut down since March 2020 and the college has requested the students to vacate the hostel by August 7, 2020.

The modest room rent of INR 100 per day was added to students who haven't vacated their hostels.

Also Read: St. Stephan's College: Course and Fees

St. Stephen’s College: Response

The college denied the allegations stated in the letter and issued a formal clarification on November 7, 2020, and stressed that the matter about college fees is transparent. 

The official report stated that St. Stephen's has hiked the fees as a false and misleading statement. 

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The semester fee per student in the 2019-20 academic year is INR 20,440 and the fee charged for the 2020-21 academic year is INR 18,580, said the official statement.

The college also added, "The establishment fee is charged to the students in order to fund the salaries of over 120 contractual, outsourced, daily-wage and regular and contractual residence staff and pensioners and the other maintenance-related expenditure of the College."