The All India Students’ Federation (AISF) has opposed the launch of self-financing postgraduate programmes at the Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit, Kalady.
The unit committee of the federation said that the self-financing programmes were being offered with a higher fee structure. The State government must withdraw its decision to start such self-financing programmes, said A. Sahad, member of the State council of the AISF.
The varsity has invited applications for three postgraduate programmes in the new academic year under the project mode scheme. The courses include Multidisciplinary Dual Master’s programme in Disaster Management and Mitigation; Postgraduate Diploma in Sanskrit Computational Linguistics; and Postgraduate Diploma in Active Ageing and Wellness Rehabilitation. The tuition fee proposed for the dual master’s programme per semester is ₹20,000 while there is a special fee of ₹15,000 a year for the programme spread over four semesters in two years.
The federation representatives said that permanent teaching appointments need not be done for these self-financing programmes as they can be taken on board under the contract mode for a period of five years.
The Sanskrit university is among the seven varsities that had received the nod from the government to launch postgraduate programmes under the project mode. Permanent teaching and non-teaching appointments cannot be made for these programmes. Such programmes can be scrapped or retained after five years following a review that will assess its prospects as well as global trends, according to the Department of Higher Education.
