IIMC Students Withdraw Protest After Administration Accepts Demands

In a victory for the students of the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) in Delhi, who had been peacefully protesting against the fee hike for 14 days, the administration agreed to accept their demands on December 17. Following this, the students withdrew their protests. The students had appeared for their semester exams which started on Monday, December 16, and then continued the strike on Tuesday, without boycotting or impeding academic activities. The students had also launched an indefinite hunger strike on Monday.

Devesh Mishra, a Hindi journalism student from IIMC, told NewsClick, “The IIMC website very clearly states that the institute is funded by the Government of India through the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. The students pay a large amount of money every year to study there, but the institute does not use that money to improve the infrastructure.”

He added, “For 200-250 students, there are only 7-8 Mac computers that can be used for editing. The number of cameras is also similar. The books in the library are old, so are the softwares and computers available for purposes like page designing.”

The institute had recently increased the annual fee for English/Hindi journalism courses from Rs 79,000 to Rs 95,000, Rs 1.68 lakh for Radio and TV from Rs 1.45 lakh and Rs 1.31 lakh for Advertising and PR from Rs 1.12 lakh. The circular notifying students of the fee hike was taken back on Tuesday, December 17.

Also read: Rising Fees, Growing Inequality

Talking to NewsClick, an IIMC student who was part of the protest said, “Our protest was completely peaceful. We did not chant any slogans. We were also attending all classes, and we are not boycotting the exams. The administration has accepted our demands as of now, and has called an emergency meeting of the Executive Council, which will be held in the month of January. A decision regarding the issue will be taken in that meeting.”

Surbhi, a student of the English Journalism department, said, "Fees are getting higher and higher with every passing year. When I filled out the form for my admission, the website said that the fee for this course was around Rs 79,000. However, after I cleared the entrance exams, and received the prospectus, I saw that the fees were Rs 95,000. Not only that, we also have to pay around Rs 6,500 per month as hostel and mess charges.”

She added, “Students from SC (scheduled castes), ST (scheduled tribes), OBC (other backward classes) and other marginalised communities cannot afford to study in this institute. Despite being a public funded institute, it’s not accessible for students belonging to all sections of the society. Only the students from the richer sections of the society can study here.”

It should be noted that the institute was unable to fill the seats reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes for the first time this year. Shivam, a student of Hindi Journalism in the university, said, “If they continue increasing the fees like this, students from the marginalised sections will never be able to become journalists in this country.”