No such thing as a free lunch: University of Peshawar raises fee by 10%

Students psych up for demonstrations against increase

PESHAWAR: Students of one of the region’s oldest and most prestigious institutions of higher learning, University of Peshawar, will now have to fork out additional money to avoid from being dropped from its register.

According to a notification, the varsity has raised its annual fee by a flat 10% for the forthcoming academic year. While the UoP administration may feel the increase will help resolve issues of liquidity, students are clearly unimpressed and have warned to take to the streets if the increase is not rolled back. Many of them complained the fee comparison of public sector universities in Pakistan does not cast UoP in a favourable light.

It all started when Governor Sardar Mehtab Ahmad Khan directed public sector universities to adopt broader mechanisms for improved financial management. Through the notification issued on July 1, a copy of which is available with The Express Tribune, Mehtab ordered universities to generate revenues from their own resources. Counting on its most significant resource – the student body – for sustenance, UoP decided to go ahead with a fee increase for all disciplines and programmes.

However, according to students, the increase was more than 10%. They said previously undergraduate students of journalism were paying Rs22,000 annually. Students told The Express Tribune they will now have to pay an additional Rs9,000. Hostel fees went from Rs17,000 per annum to Rs22,000.

Students have rejected the new fee structure. “A government university should enable a higher number of underprivileged students to attain higher education. The move will destroy the dreams of thousands,” said Junaid Sabir, a senior year journalism student at UoP. He said the education sector needs policy experts who know the importance of institutions of higher education.

Waqas Ahmed is another senior at the anthropology department. Talking to The Express Tribune, he said the decision will have far-reaching adverse effects. “We live in an atmosphere of fear, hate and terror. It is the administration’s foremost responsibility to facilitate its students.”

Student union Muttahida Taliba Mahaz and other alliances have decided to take to the streets. Banners protesting the fee hike are already up on the corridors of the UoP hostel.

‘Expensive commodity’

Education activist Shafeeq Gigyani said education is the most expensive commodity in the province. “Middle and lower-middle income sections of society cannot even imagine sending their children for higher education.”

Talking to The Express Tribune, UoP Director Admissions Hizbullah said the increase is a routine administrative decision that is taken every year. He said earlier departments collected their own tuition fee while this time, all fees – including tuition and admission – will be collected by the admissions office. “This is why there is confusion and students feel they have to pay hefty amounts.”

In comparison

Although public sector universities in different parts of the country base their fee on varying factors—given the variation in their size, sources of external funding—in an ideal situation there should be a mechanism in place which standardises their standards and fees. For instance, the University of Punjab’s 2015-16 fee structure states an annual fee of Rs5,420 for its journalism and mass communication undergraduate programme – the Peshawar varsity is basically charging around five times more.

Answering the question of comparison, Hizbullah contended the increase has been made in light of government directives. “We have been asked to generate revenue from our own resources. We have no option but to increase fees.”

Published in The Express Tribune, July 30^th, 2015.