Delhi University will focus on increasing internal resources through revision of fees, creating endowment funds with the help of corporates and engaging with alumni for donation and various activities.

The university in its proposed tripartite memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the education ministry and University Grants Commission (UGC) will make these commitments as part of the government’s push to all central universities for taking efforts to reduce dependency on public funding.

“The university shall endeavour to continue to charge and revise fees for its various courses and facilities, keeping in view the need to make quality education accessible to all. Additionally, efforts will be made to augment the financial resources from other sources such as through endowments, and a one-time grant from public private organisations/individuals,” a provision in the MoU said.

All the central universities are signing these types of agreements since 2019. However, the increase in fees has largely remained muted so far because of the outbreak of Covid in early 2020.

This year, the commitment for increasing fees has come a shocker to several faculty members and students because of job losses and salary cuts owing to the economic crisis that got aggravated by Covid-induced restrictions.

Abha Dev Habib, a faculty member of Miranda House College, said that the fees as such in DU colleges are very high. The fees may have a small component of tuition fee but it ranges between Rs 5,000 and Rs 42,000 in a year. St Stephen’s College charges Rs 42,000 annually, which includes charges for building, furniture, IT and similar facilities.

“The parents are more stressed this year. Many have lost jobs and those in the private sector have faced salary cuts. The commitment to fee revision will add to the stress of students,” Habib said.

Last year, hundreds of students of different DU colleges failed to pay their fees. Students of different colleges like St Stephen’s, Lady Shri Ram College (LSR) and Hindu College started fund-raising campaigns to help their needy peers. The effort became popular as many alumni and philanthropists came forward to support through money or in terms of gadgets for online education.

A DU official said that the UGC keeps sending letters asking to augment funds and cut spending on different heads.

“The UGC keeps monitoring the implementation of the tripartite agreement. For the last two years, Covid has created hurdles in implementation. The government also ranks universities based on how much they could keep to their commitments. So there is pressure to implement the commitment,” the official said.

The National Education Policy (NEP) too has emphasised on raising funds by institutions.

“The public universities provide education to all types of students. A majority of them are from economically and socially deprived sections. Any change in funding pattern will harm their interest,” Habib said.

An email sent to DU vice-chancellor P.C. Joshi to get his comments on giving such commitment on revision of fees received no response.