Pay dues to get degrees, TISS tells its students
Aarushi Sheth
Mumbai: 09.05.2018
Sandeep Gupta, a 26-year-old student from Bihar, was to graduate on Tuesday and receive his LLM degree from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences. But instead of a degree he got a piece of cardboard listing out his dues to the institute. Gupta had with difficulty paid the first semester fee to the institute and received a scholarship for his second semester. However, the scholarship did not cover hostel expenses or additional expenses for tuition and dining. So Sandeep is yet to settle dues of Rs 20,000.
Although Gupta got to participate in the convocation ceremony on Tuesday, the envelope he received contained a piece of cardboard and not his degree. “I was ashamed to open my envelope in front of my friends,” said Gupta. He isn’t alone: many students from the L.L.M. and Masters in Philosophy courses find themselves in the same situation. One of the students waiting outside the convocation hall said, “People from marginalized sections are finding it hard to receive an education at TISS which charges higher fees than other publicly funded universities.”
However, the TISS administration said the practices adopted by the institute were the same as those at many national and international universities. “If someone isn’t paying their fees, it means that they don’t value the degree,” said a TISS official, adding that degrees would be handed over once outstandings were cleared. TISS students have been protesting against the administration’s move to charge Government of India Post-matric Scholarship (GOI PMS) recipients dining hall and hostel fees. While the students insist that dining and hostel charges are included under the GOI-PMS scheme, the institute says it has been bearing the expenses internally for years and this has added up to approximately Rs 20 crore.
Aarushi Sheth
Mumbai: 09.05.2018
Sandeep Gupta, a 26-year-old student from Bihar, was to graduate on Tuesday and receive his LLM degree from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences. But instead of a degree he got a piece of cardboard listing out his dues to the institute. Gupta had with difficulty paid the first semester fee to the institute and received a scholarship for his second semester. However, the scholarship did not cover hostel expenses or additional expenses for tuition and dining. So Sandeep is yet to settle dues of Rs 20,000.
Although Gupta got to participate in the convocation ceremony on Tuesday, the envelope he received contained a piece of cardboard and not his degree. “I was ashamed to open my envelope in front of my friends,” said Gupta. He isn’t alone: many students from the L.L.M. and Masters in Philosophy courses find themselves in the same situation. One of the students waiting outside the convocation hall said, “People from marginalized sections are finding it hard to receive an education at TISS which charges higher fees than other publicly funded universities.”
However, the TISS administration said the practices adopted by the institute were the same as those at many national and international universities. “If someone isn’t paying their fees, it means that they don’t value the degree,” said a TISS official, adding that degrees would be handed over once outstandings were cleared. TISS students have been protesting against the administration’s move to charge Government of India Post-matric Scholarship (GOI PMS) recipients dining hall and hostel fees. While the students insist that dining and hostel charges are included under the GOI-PMS scheme, the institute says it has been bearing the expenses internally for years and this has added up to approximately Rs 20 crore.
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