DU’s revenue from student fees increased in last five years

In the latest update, Delhi University’s revenue collection from students dee has increased. As per the reports it has more than doubled in the past five years. With over Rs 200 crore amassed in the previous fiscal year and the funds received from the UGC grants have remained underutilised.

As per the data shared by its finance department, the university’s internal receipts the fund inflow mainly includes fees of students and other elements like consultancy feels, which stood around Rs 100 crore in the year 2019-20. And the figure rose to Rs 200 crore in the year 2023-2024.

The varsity’s grants from University Grants Commission (UGC) have raised in absolute terms, however there is downward trend in the share of UGC grants in the total fund inflow.

In 2019-202, the university received around Rs 600 crore from UGC and in 2023-24 around Rs 800 crore as the data shows.

The share of inflow has declined to 77 percent from 83 percent, between 2019-20 to 203-24.This indicates the role of public funding in the running of Delhi University is declining , said a professor of commerce at DU.  

“Moreover, the magnitude of total receipts now exceeds the total expenditure of Delhi University and this trend emerged in the last two years. This demonstrates that there has been an underutilisation of funds from total receipts,” he added. There was no immediate comment on this data from the university officials.

The university imposed a fee hike in July across its degree programmes. It includes 60 per cent increase in PhD courses. In December last year, DU increased its annual charge by 46 percent, this marks the second hike within a year.

Various professors of the university have alleged, this was an attempt to recoup interest on the Higher Education Financing Agency (HEFA) loan from students’ pockets. HEFA is a joint venture of Canara Bank and the Ministry of Education.

 An investment committee will be set up, if required, it would be to evaluate all financial plans of the university, the IDP states.