Talk with the Administration regarding Fee Structure
With the circulation of a mail addressed to the parents/guardians of students dated 14th July 2020, mentioning the Fee Demand for Autumn Semester 2020–21 has been generated; the Fee structure and demand have raised serious concerns and doubts amongst the student community.
Awaaz, IIT Kharagpur compiled all the queries and suggestions we received from the students and asked for clarifications regarding the same from Dean(Student Affairs), Dean(UG), Dean(PGS&R), Assistant Registrar(Academic, UG) and Vice-President(TSG) through an email dated 15th July 2020. We haven’t received replies to our emails yet but we telephonically enquired with some people in the administration today and these are the answers we received while some questions were unanswered.
The contents of the mail can be viewed in the following link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dOS2eJAcOvTTScJLWz91KVmCA33N-WvcVjoUbsb1nl8/edit?usp=sharing
The questions asked in the mail along with responses against each question are as follows:
Question 1. Mess charges, which have been abruptly lowered by Rs 2000 (17%); imply the amount of all the resources and raw materials that mess consumes, is worth that small percentage of the total budget; that would raise other serious concerns. With the uncertainty of students coming back to the Institute (also some students who stayed in the campus had to pay Rs 7000 extra mess fee last semester), this fee is unjustifiable and thus is requested not to be added right now in fee demand, but be rather charged when the campus reopens. If the next semester goes completely online; is it guaranteed that the mess fees would get reimbursed fully?
Answer: The mess charges are taken in advance for a semester. Since there is no certainty on the time of students returning to campus, the amount is optimally changed seeing a probability of mess functioning. The mess charges are deducted as one consumes food in mess, and any excess amount is automatically adjusted for the next semester.
Question 2: The short time frame of only 14 days provided for fee payment provided many places in the country are still in lockdown, with many government offices being closed; making it difficult for students to produce income certificates, etc in time. Parent’s income declaration certified affidavit has to be procured from the court along with the Income Tax Return Certificate or Parents income certificate from Tehsildar’s office to successfully avail the waiver. But due to this lockdown, it could be very difficult for guardians to go with that scrutiny due to various reasons in a short span of only 2 weeks.
Answer: For those students who will be applying for a tuition fee waiver, seeing the difficulty to procure the necessary documents, the administration is considering to avail the waiver based on the documents submitted in the previous financial year to adjust fees for this semester. The income declaration portal has been made active. Once the conditions improve nationally, fresh documents could be submitted.
Question 3: The Scholarship portal is not yet activated for students who want to freshly apply for MCM Scholarships.
Answer: The Academic Section has been informed and they’re looking into the matter.
Question 4: Few students have received refunds from unutilized part of the mess budget from last semester, but many others who’ve left the campus in March itself haven’t yet received any amount. The HMC is suggested to collect information and proofs of travel from the students who’ve not received the refund and do the needful.
Action Taken: Since we were advised to resolve it in the level of Halls of Residence, Awaaz is looking forward to contacting HMC to get clarifications regarding this and about their plans to resolve the issue smoothly. Students need to contact their respective Wardens and Hall Council Members for refunds if they’ve not received yet.
Question 5. Because of the possibility of next semester conducted online, the students will not be using resources either in the Halls, Gymkhana, and the Academic buildings (Nalanda, Departments, Library, etc). Thus the Internet charges (400), Electricity & Water charges (800), TFS (100), Laboratory Contingency (600), Students’ Brotherhood Fund (200), Gymkhana (600) Students’ Amenities (600); summing up to Rs 3300 is unjustifiable in the current scenario. These fees should either be exempted or reduced if students need to return to campus at a later time.
Answer: Gymkhana charges are used for all maintenance work of the facilities. Even in this break, maintenance work is going on and that requires payment for the workers. Students’ inputs regarding all the other charges have been noted by the administration and concerned people are working on it.
Question 6. The purpose of Student Welfare Policy (Rs 2500), and whether this would help if the semester goes online.
Answer: This is an insurance amount taken for providing financial aid in emergency medical cases or death of a student or guardian. This amount is taken every semester so that we can cover up periodical insurance instalments to the insurance company.
Please see for details:
We still do not have all the clarifications or resolutions to many queries though we believe that we shall receive those once our administration works out the inputs they have received from the student community. Also, we have not received any comment on the issue of the short window of just 2 weeks for the fee payment along with how well a student will be able to manage to pay a lump sum of 1.3 Lakhs in this current scenario, although the issue of family income declaration is being taken care of like we mentioned in the answer to Q2.
We are continuously in discussion with the administration regarding the issue and will keep you updated.
