Fee to apply for PhD in GU higher than IISc

Guwahati: Applying for PhD entrarance in Gauhati University (GU) has become more than two-fold costlier than the country’s top ranked Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore.
While the application fee for various categories of students is Rs 800 in IISc, it is as low as Rs 300 in JNU, New Delhi.
GU PhD application fees have been doubled from Rs 1,000 in pre-Covid times to Rs 2,000 now, even as the student fraternity has raised strong objections to the ‘unusual hike’.The application fees for the aspiring research scholars in GU, a state university, stand even higher than Delhi University. The ‘exorbitant fee’ is causing a pocket pinch even as the application process for GURET (GU Research Eligibility Test) — the first screening test after the Central Application Process (CAP) for admission into the PhD Programmes of GU — ended on Sunday. The GURET 2023 will be held in offline mode on July 2.
The GU unit of All Assam Students’ Union (Aasu) recently submitted a memorandum before the academic registrar of the university for immediate rollback of the fee structure that surpassed PhD entrance application fees in several other leading universities of the country. But their plea was unheard.
“A large number of applicants are unhappy with the high application fees. We appeal for a roll back of the hiked fee and keep it in the earlier slab,” said GU Aasu unit president Bikram Hazarika and general secretary Bishnu Raghav Das.
They said even some of renowned central universities and private universities have lower PhD application fees than GU. For general category students, the same application fee is Rs 800 for Tezpur University and Rs 1,000 in Assam University, Silchar — both central universities located in Assam. Two other leading private universities of the state, Assam Don Bosco University and Royal Global University, have fixed the application fees at Rs 1,000 each. The same application fee is Rs 500 in Jadavpur University, Kolkata and Dibrugarh University, another state university in Assam.
“There is no exemption, even for reserved category students. GU may not be at the top in university rankings in the country but at the top in charging fees from the students. Many PhD aspirants apply for two subjects. What will they do?” asked Hemen Kalita, a PhD student in GU.