A long thread on JNU fee hike. Is the protest justified ? Some data points can help us analyze. Step-1: Do you know how many courses are there at JNU & what is the student strength? Here is how it looks. @monikahalan @gchikermane 
We see that there are a total of ~8000 students at JNU. Of this, the lion’s share of 57% students is of social sciences, language, literature & arts (4578 students) & International studies 15% ( 1210 students). Almost 55% of the total i.e. 4359 students are doing M.Phil. or Ph.D
Cost of running such University: Just how much does government spends on JNU? Look at the Profit & Loss account of JNU for 2018. This is hidden somewhere in the middle of an 600 page annual report. It should be the first section on annual reports.
So JNU spends about Rs 556 crores per year on its functioning.So what is the cost per student at JNU ? We can calculate. Rs 556 crore / 8000 students gives us Rs 6.95 lac per student annually.
Even if we exclude “other income” & count only the govt subsidy & grants, we have a total expense of Rs 352 crore over 8000 students. We can safely assume that each student consumes Rs 4.40 lacs of government subsidy at JNU every year.
Research, publications & patents at JNU: Assumption is that such high subsidy on "good talent" would be producing great research outcomes, right? Well, hardly. There are no concrete claims on research & publications, no names of journals or publications worth mentioning.
You’ll find some mention of research in the placement brochure (yes they have one, although very superficial & doesn’t disclose any statistics about past placements). Here is what you’ll see in the name of research at JNU:
With 4360 students in M.Phil. & Ph.D. courses, there are hardly 1000 research “articles” published in Journals. The university doesn’t name any notable journals while making such claims. This implies that there is just ONE “article” published for every 4.5 students each year.
There is huge participation in international conferences. So about 2000 international conferences are attended every year. Again, not sure what materializes in those conferences. Certainly not the research papers or patents.
But there should be some patents at-least ? All that we find for patents is 4 names of Mr. Bhatnagar, Ms. Dixit, Mr Kar & Mr. Mukherjee. No patents by any other faculty. Number of patents by students ??? Try searching…….I did not find any results. So much for 600 PH.Ds every yr
So is the fee hike Justified ? Why punish the meritorious students? Firstly, in view of the data above, it doesn’t appear that there is much focus on output or getting laurels for the nation at JNU. Now, let’s look at the “fee” the students pay to study at the university.
The numbers you are looking at are not in thousands or lacs. These are what they are in INR. So Rs 240 is the entire tuition fee paid by JNU student. Aside, they pay a generous Rs 6 for library & Rs 40 as refundable security deposit. Any research paper on how the fee is so low?
IIT Delhi which is located close by charges about Rs 2.25 plus lac annually & IIMs charge about Rs 5 to 10 lac per year. We don’t see any strikes at those places. Students know they need to jump into the job market, start their earning life & also repay their student loans
JNU is free of any such thoughts or troubles. Probably the reason why students have much time left to create new troubles of their own. Ideology or idle mind, you decide.
I don’t want to conclude any political thoughts here. But the data from official sources of the university help us infer a lot of ideas. JNU is a perfect example of bad socialism. If you give something for free, people have no incentive to work & earn.
Why would anyone at JNU be in a hurry to find jobs or even publish research. In a nation where we’re are hardly able to educate our children thru primary schools, JNU stands tall as an example of socialist elitism at its best.
The students may have all the time for doctoral courses, the nation is certainly running out of money to pay for these scholars.Surprised that this social reform idea never came out from JNU that claims to be the study centre on social sciences? Irony died a quite death !!
While Twitter has word limits, pls do read the detailed answer & references on Quora. My answer to What is your opinion on the government's decision on increasing the fees of eminent universities like JNU and DU? quora.com/What-is-your-o…
Detailed answer with references is on Quora. quora.com/What-is-your-o…
