FTII, SRFTI students protest entrance test fee hike

Protesting against the hike in test fee for the Joint Entrance Test (JET) 2020, students of Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune and Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute (SRFTI), Kolkata have demanded the stalling of the exam, through which candidates are shortlisted to both the institutes, Pune Mirror reported.

Recently, similar protests against fee hike was staged by students of JNU and IIMC, in Delhi.

In letters to concerned college authorities, student of FTII and SRFTI said the increased fees would restrict the opportunities for those coming from lower economic backgrounds. Though the authorities have accepted the letter and are willing to discuss the issue, they denied hiking the entrance test fee.

Also read: Compare JNU revised fee with other varsities: HRD Min to high-powered committee

The admission advertisement for the entrance exam, notified through various publications and on the exam’s website, says that students can apply for one, two or three courses at a time. To apply for a single course, students from the reserved category (SC, ST and persons with disabilities) need to pay ₹1,250 while students from the general and OBC categories are required to pay ₹4,000. While the fee for applying for two and three courses for reserved category students is ₹2,500 and ₹3,125 respectively, the same for students from general and OBC categories are ₹8,000 and ₹10,000 respectively.

Students in their letters, cited discrepancies in the JET committee’s report between amount collected and amount spent on entrance exams. In the report, the amount collected in 2018 and 2019 was cited as ₹1,82,03,820 and ₹2,10,29,500 whereas that spent was a mere ₹35 lakh and ₹37 lakh respectively.

Students of both the institutes have also demanded that the entrance exam for the upcoming year be stalled and the exam notification on the JET website be pulled down till their demands are discussed.