ES Reporter 

ITANAGAR, Sep 4: In view of the continuing protests by the students of Rajiv Gandhi University over fee hike, the varsity’s VC Professor Saket Kushwaha on Friday clarified that there is no hike in the academic admission fees or in the examination fees as claimed by the Rajiv Gandhi University Students’ Union (RGUSU).
“A committee was formed to look into the demands of the student union and it has found that exam fee for the intermediate and last semester was not hiked, ” VC said while addressing a press conference here at the Press Club. He said that as per the final report of the committee, the decision of concession in admission fee will be looked into. If the committee recommends to provide a discount in admission fee, the university will provide the discount from the next semester, he said, however, adding that there is no system of refunding.
The RGUSU has been protesting against the hike in admission fee and the university’s lackadaisical attitude towards their demands since September 1. The VC also said that there have been mistakes during the admission process by the students and a few of them did not give their contact numbers and some even chose the wrong subject due to which there is now the demand for refund of admission fees.  “Three years back, it was the then student union who said not to give particulars of fees during the admission for some reasons. We are just following the same order as passed to me,” he informed while responding to the demand of the union for inclusion of particulars of fee during admission. He informed that the normal academic session will resume by the first week of October following all SOPs. The semester exams will be completed by September 28 next, he added.

Meanwhile, the Registrar Tomo Riba  while responding to the eight-point demand of the RGUSU said that the university will be refunding the exam fees collected online for semester examination and the process in on. He said that the demand for the extension of admission date for M. Phil scholars has been approached by the students too late and there is also no hike in admission fee as claimed by the union. “According to reports during a discussion, we have found there is no hike in admission fee. As per the data collected by respective departments, 80 per cent of the admission has been completed,” he said, adding that by Thursday last it has increased to 84 per cent. Riba also made it clear that the concession in admission fees for Post Graduate, M.Phil and Under Graduate (UG) students is not possible as most of the students have already taken admission. “If we make concessions for the remaining students then we will also have to give concessions to all the students who have taken admission. Therefore, the demand of concession will be a long-drawn process which is not possible,” he added.
The Registrar also informed that the students who have paid extra fees for the semester examination in 2019 will be refunded soon. The same is also under process to refund the extra fees paid by the students for non-practical subjects like Sociology, History and Commerce etc, he informed. “The inclusion of a student union representative as a permanent member in an academic council meeting is decided by the Union Ministry of Education. Therefore, we will look into the matter and see if there are any criteria to include a representative,” he said, stating along with that there is no issue to include a student's representative in the academic council meeting and they have to seek permission from the UGC and the Ministry of Education in this regard.
Regarding the demand for conducting supplementary examinations for final semester students, Riba said that the university is unable to do so as there is a need for an academic council meeting and an approval in the executive council meeting.
“The issue was earlier discussed with all the Principals of colleges and universities, where it was opposed by everyone. However, we will again place the issue in the next academic council meeting,” the Registrar assured. 

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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