Hyderabad: Fee hike may not affect poor students at Osmania University

Hyderabad: The manifold increase in fee for various courses in Osmania University may not affect those from poor backgrounds taking admission in the varsity.

According to university authorities, they said they have studied all aspects before proposing the fee hike, and also the representatives of the State government were part of the authority that has given its nod.

Speaking to The Hans India, OU Vice-Chancellor, Prof D Ravinderallayed the fears of some students. He said that the fee for various courses at the university remained unchanged for the last 15 years or more. Further, most students taking admission in various courses at the university come under the fee reimbursement scheme. Thus, there was no need for the students to worry about the same. The university would get the fee as and when the State government releases fee under the scheme, he said.

Elaborating further, he pointed out the fee of even new courses like Artificial Intelligence and others were far less than the fee collected for the same courses in other institutions.

"All the seats in the AI-related courses at OU were filled within a couple of hours of opening the online admissions. It shows that the students have not only reposed their faith with the kind of infrastructure and teaching resources available with the university, but also with the fee hike," he said.

That apart, the fee structure of several other courses in humanities, social sciences and others was much below the fee collected at several central institutions located in the State. Also, the self-finance courses of the university are below the similar programmes offered at several private universities, autonomous private educational institutions and various other higher educational institutions, the OU authorities said.