HPU FEES HIKE

I wrote this on 15 Oct 2014. It was published in The tribune, OP-ED page on 5 Dec 2014 

Is the increase in tuition, examination and other fees in HPU an exercise in resource mobilisation at all? Will the present and future fee hikes bail out the HPU out of its financial difficulties?

A firm answer to these questions can only be a no, with a capital N.

These questions have been haunting me for some days now. The Himachal Pradesh University is on the boil. All academic activity in the entire state has come to a halt. Police brutality on the protesting students has become the order of the day. The campus at Summer Hill resembles a Police Chawani. All protests and agitations ought to be peaceful, if not Gandhian. The infamous attack on the Vice Chancellor by the protesting students was cruel and unjustified. It needs to be condemned as much as the imposition of Section 144 and the police brutality on the protesting students and denying the right to peaceful protest. The academic atmosphere is nonexistent at present and anarchy prevails.

It is true that the university needs resources. Facing the financial predicament of raising Rs 35 crores, 25% of its annual outlay, which is the deficit, the university administration took a decision to increase the fees all across the board, to raise an additional Rs. 2 crores. This is important, only Rs 2 crores. The additional resources from the present fees hike amounts to 0.01% of the total outlay and 0.05% of its deficit. The million dollar question here is, where and how the University administration will find the remaining Rs. 33 crores, 24.5% of the unaccounted deficit? If it can find the Rs 33 crores needed, sure it can find another Rs. 2 crores. One would wonder, why this controversy at all? So why the fee hike at all? Is it an effort in resource mobilisation at all?

The financial difficulties in the government universities in Himachal, HP University at Shimla, Horticulture university at Solan and the Agriculture University at Palampur, are crippling. Facing huge unaccounted deficits and very little to show in the way of revenues, these universities are on the point of collapse and closure. The government, facing its own financial difficulties, is in no position to support and bail out the universities in the state, that too year after year.

Where do the universities in Himachal go from here? Well, the HPU went witch hunting with the infamous fees hike, both at under graduate and post graduate levels. Though the need for additional resources can be understood and even nominal or moderate fees hike in that direction can be understood, yet what disturbs the mind is the quantum and manner of this fee hike, the incremental is just unacceptable.

The present fees hike is unscientific and absurd. One classic example, examination fee for private girl students is now Rs. 1,000 and the late fee for the same is Rs. 3,600! That too, on a day when the admissions close for the regular and correspondence students and their examinations forms will be submitted later without any late fee! Some more, MA fee is Rs. 2,500, MA Music is Rs. 15,000 and MBA is Rs. 11,100, so the prospectus says. The entire decision making process of fee hike seems biased, pre planned, and loaded with ulterior motives. Suffice here to say that it shows the bankruptcy, not financial but mental, in the system. Despite the two rounds of committees on resource mobilisation, the only solution the university authorities have is a substantial fee hike! Are our universities harbouring the think tanks, at all? It seems, instead of an objective exercise at resource mobilisation, there was a subjective decision on one pre decided subject, the excuse being the fee structure in the Punjab University and elsewhere. A cut and paste job indeed. Moreover, comparing the HPU to the Punjab University is like comparing a government school to a public school in Shimla. This is the goodwill and prestige HPU carries. It seems the government university is in competition with the private education institutional fee structure. Commercialisation of education is coming a full circle.

No wonder the students are protesting and the concerned citizens are disturbed and the University administration finds itself in a cesspool of its own creation and a High Power Committee is in existence!

The university administration has been unable to explain this fee hike to anyone except itself. The government not satisfied with the answers provided was quick to understand this dilemma. This is why a High Power Committee to review the fee hike was formed. The government, like the students and public, wants to know the answer. In this sense, this High Power Committee is not a rubber stamp committee to brush things under the carpet, rather it is an honest attempt by the government to understand the issue and find answers that are beneficial for all concerned. The government needs to be appreciated on this score, at least. Having said that it needs to be stated that the government and the university mandarins have missed the basic issue involved, that the problem and solution is not a fees hike but the need to effect an honest and meaningful resource mobilisation effort in all the universities so that there is a permanent and everlasting source of revenue for the universities and little or no dependence on the government of the day. In this sense the hands of the present High Power committee are tied by its terms of reference and its adjudication of the issue at hand may seem to be a half hearted effort, with no solution in sight.

An interesting fact is that the present incumbent to the post of Vice Chancellor was appointed by the previous government. He completed his term, without a fee hike. He was given an extension by the present government, for the reasons best known to it. At the very end of this extension, the fee hike is implemented. Why? Is there a conspiracy lurking in the background?

It must be said, that the fee needs to be increased, in a scientific manner that is affordable and acceptable to all the stakeholders. It ought to be a continuous process with the quantum and timings decided by the stakeholders. My opinion is that the government institutions cannot have excessive fee structures. The right to affordable education is the right of every citizen and any government is bound to provide it and find resources to support such programmes, when it comes to education and health. Education and health should be affordable to all, if not free, in the government institutions. Singapore is a shining example of such an effort.

The inefficiencies of the system cannot be translated into a fee hike in the government institutions, especially in education and health. India is a Welfare State. Dr. Manmohan Singh, the most famous and decorated economist in India, as the Prime Minister forgot this principle of Welfare State and he forgot that the inefficiencies of the system cannot be translated into higher taxes and higher cost of living for the citizens, and thus India obliterated his party into oblivion.

The solution to the problem at hand does not lie in the present unscientific and absurd fee hike, rather the solution is twofold. First, the University administrations need an honest attempt at realistic resource mobilisation, which does not mean an excessive tuition and examination fee hikes, and a sincere effort to identify and curtail any wasteful expenditure involved. Second, the government of the day has to step in to finance the deficit.

Even though I am not an expert in the field of resource mobilisation, yet I can suggest a way or two to increase revenues and reduce expenses.

One, a very nominal increase in the fee structure can be done. This should be a continuous process and the formula for the increase or its timing should be agreed upon by the stakeholders, because this is more of an emotional issue.

Two, the examination system is the main culprit for the deficit. Ways have to be found, based on modern technology and principles and practises elsewhere, to make the system more efficient not only in cost saving but also in minimising the mistakes and declaring the results on time. 

Three, the ways have to be found to associate the Alumni of the university in various programmes to raise the much needed finance. This can be a powerful source, if tapped judiciously. Many rich and famous and powerful people of the country and the world (the former President of Afghanistan comes to my mind) are the alumni of the Himachal Pradesh University. This is a successful practice, the world over.

Four, the university and college campuses have large amounts of real estate, in the form of spare land, building facades and buses. This could be utilized for selling advertising. That is a huge potential advertising space. The campuses brimming with the youth are an ideal place for the advertisers.

Five, commercial complexes, with shops catering to the needs in the campuses can be created and rented out at commercial rates.

Six, the formation of an expert committee or appointing a consultant to get at the bottom of the cost saving and the resource mobilisation effort and settle the issue once and for all.