Fee Hike: Meet with the Four Directors - Minutes
Written on May 9th, 2018 by {"login"=>"jcbitshyd", "email"=>"journal@hyderabad.bits-pilani.ac.in", "display_name"=>"Journal Club, BPHC", "first_name"=>"", "last_name"=>""}The meeting of the student representatives of the three campuses of
BITS Pilani with the directors of the campus began around 6.30PM on the
9th May, 2018.
The director of BITS Goa began by stating that the directors were
aware of the seriousness with which the students believe of this matter,
and that the directors of respective campuses have heard the voices of
the students. He said that illness of the Vice Chancellor was an
unforeseen event and that the Vice Chancellor represents BITS as a
university. He went on to say that it is their responsibility to ensure
the VC was in good health and that he was in AIIMS as this meeting was
happening. Prof. Raghurama went on to say that the Vice Chancellor, as
the executive head was ultimately in-charge of all these issues.
However, in the absence of the VC, Prof. Raghurama stated that the four
directors of BITS Pilani would like to address the issue. After about
twenty minutes of introductory speech, Prof. Raghurama finally let a
student of BITS Goa ask the first question.
Q: What are the steps the directors have taken in the last five days of protest?
Ans: Prof. Raghurama said that he met the students
in the auditorium, and that he was in touch with the other directors of
BITS and the VC.
Q: What is the administrative mechanism to bring about a change in the fee structure?
Ans: The fee decisions are a part of the budget. The
budget for the institution is made for a year, with a long term plan in
mind. Prof. Raghurama cited the example of Project Lakshya, stating
that feedback had been taken from faculty and stakeholders involved in
various aspects of that project. After a budget is made, it goes to the
finance committee, which looks at the budget and presents it to the
Board of Governors. Once the board approves, it has to be approved by
the general body, after which it becomes “actionable”.
Q: When will the next Board of Governors meeting be?
Ans: They happen once a year. They have authority to
only approve the budget. The constitution says, “they will meet as
often as required”. Prof. Sundar added that there is a specific process
to be followed to convene a meet of the board, and that anyone cannot
call for a meet. There will be no meet of the board before summer. Any
decisions taken by the board will be informed to the students. The board
will probably have no meet over the summer, or in the next six months
for that matter.
Q:
How is the fee hike being justified, considering the inflation rate?
What is the breakup of the 15%, if inflation is not a major factor?
Ans: The 15% hike is not for existing students. For
the existing students it will be less than that, and you were told
about a maximum possible hike for 15% when you joined. The Government of
India revises the salaries by adjusting the Dearness Allowance, which
is usually an increase of 8-10% over the last five years. Inflation rate
is not applicable uniformly across all sectors.
Q:
The annual report mentions the difference between on campus and
off-campus revenue. Considering factors like declining WILP, and lack of
funding from DST could not have been forseen in 2010 when the long term
goal was made, what is being done to increase off-campus revenue to
reduce burden on the students?
Ans: The government funding you speak of is not a
part of the institute budget. It definitely helps in building the
infrastructure of our college, but it is not a part of the budget. At
most, the funding from that is used to fund the running expenses of the
funded project labs. Also, WILP is not just a revenue generator for
BITS. WILP is an educational innovation that is unparalleled in terms of
what it tries to achieve. Prof Sundar also stated that there is no
annual report that says that WILP is not living up to its expectations.
He also said that if there are problems with WILP, he would be
addressing them with his team. Both of these are not the subject of
discussion today.
Q:
The professor to student ratio is roughly 1:19 in BITS. IITs and NITs
have a better ratio and so do some other private colleges. Considering
the fact that BITS is focusing on expansion, why isn’t BITS
concentrating on improving the faculty first?
Ans: The number isn’t the only thing that matters.
The quality also does. The private colleges you speak of might be taking
in recently graduated PhD students as Associate Professor and within a
few years promoting them to Professor. We could have done that a long
time ago, had we wanted to. But we don’t, because quality is more
important. Also, the VC and the directors are conducting interviews for
faculty positions - 200+ interviews have been done so far.
Q:
While you might be recruiting faculty to solve the problem, student
intake has been increasing, worsening the ratio. Why have resources been
diverted towards expansion despite lack of faculty?
Ans: Numbers are not the only thing that matter. A
few years ago, BITS had a lot of lecturers (without PhDs). Now, we could
easily recruit more lecturers to improve the ratio, and that is
something we might consider. We are in the process of recruiting more
professors. Also faculty, especially good faculty, when deciding whether
to join or not look at where the institute will be in ten years - we
need great facilities to attract great talent.
Q:
With increase in intake, coupled with increase in fees, how can BITS
maintain quality of students? How will BITS maintain its aim of
“affordable, quality education” as stated in the Bulletin?
Ans: Increase of intake will obviously lead to a
drop in cutoff. But that doesn’t mean the quality has reduced. If the
fall in cutoff were not proportional to the rise in seats, that may be a
cause for concern. That is not the case, however. A number doesn’t just
decide the quality of the student. Furthurmore, you can’t just judge
student quality by the incoming batch -you need to look at the track
record of the graduating batch as well. A combination of these two
factors, perhaps could be used as a measure for quality. Affordability
of fees is person dependent and income dependent.
Q: How can current students of BITS afford the fee when it’s been compounding multiple times?
Ans: It is not a question of affordability. It is a question of planning. When you are joining BITS, you need to plan for it.
Q:
Loans are sanctioned on the basis of fee in first year. When the fee
increases, students end up exhausting the credit that was sanctioned to
them, due to the multiple increases in fee. Also, SBI loans are
collateral free only upto Rs. 20 lakh. How do you plan on tackling this?
Ans: These are real problems - many banks are
willing to give loans to students of BITS Pilani students. These are
issues that we can discuss and sort out, after consulting with everyone
involved.
Q:If the announcement is made in summer break, how do we communicate with you?
Ans: You are still welcome to give your opinion. We
can communicate as we are communicating now. Summer break does not have
to mean a break in communication.
Q: Can we get an answer by tomorrow evening?
Ans: No, I cannot guarantee anything like that. We will present your issues to the Board, that is the only thing in our hands.
List of demands by the students:
- The current fee structure should continue for all currently enrolled students in the academic year 2018-19.
- Fee hike to be imposed on only the new incoming batches - no fee hike for incoming students after they’re a part of BITS.
- Make it clear how much they’ll pay during their stay at BITS.
- Until these concerns are addressed by the Board of Governors, SWD should not issue fee notices for next semester.
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Released on 10th May, 2018 around 4AM, just hours after the meet concluded. Compiled by Rohit Dwivedula and Shanmukh Kali Prasad. Disclaimer: This article is a summary of the meeting that captures the essential points. Every single line spoken in the meeting (that lasted more than 2.5 hours) has not been transcribed word-by-word.