भारतीय जन संचार संस्थान

Indian Institute of Mass Communication

(Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Government of India )

Aruna Asaf Ali Marg, JNU Campus, New Delhi 110067

+91-11-2674 1450  / 2674 1268 |

[email protected] | www.iimc.gov.in

  Date:  February 18, 2020

Appeal to Students

The Administration is in receipt of a letter dated, February 17, 2020, late in the evening, addressed to the DG., IIMC, through DSW, signed by one student, Mr Gautam Kumar, claiming to be ‘on behalf of the students of IIMC’.  This letter mentions the students intend to go on hunger strike, if certain demands are not accepted ‘before 10 am on 18/02/2020’.  They include the ‘quashing of the fee-submission circular dated 12.02.2020’, (b) ‘initiation of enquiry into the entire procedure of the Committee formed on the direction of EC since 02.01.2020’ and (c) ‘revocation of the suspension of students’.

As regards the first demand, it may be mentioned that the Circular dated 12/02/2020 is based on the direction/decision arrived at by the EC, increasing the freeship to 25% to all economically eligible students, doing away with other requirements such as academic and attendance eligibility. Accordingly, quarter free-ship (ranging from Rs 11,250 – Rs 40,000 per student) is expected to benefit 184 out of the total 434 students which is 42% of total students and the last day for submission of fee is March 2, 2020..

It is also pertinent to mention here that IIMC has not hiked its course fees mid way.  The course fee charged is as per the information given in the prospectus.   IIMC offers skill based professional PG Diploma Courses with high employability potential in English and  Hindi Journalism, Radio & TV Journalism,   Advertising & PR etc,  and the course fee charged is more or less comparable to fees charged by similar other institutions in public domain, including the two film schools under the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting.  IIMC is not a funded education institution, but an autonomous body under the Ministry of I&B.  As per the Memorandum of Understanding signed with the parent ministry, autonomous bodies are required to generate nearly a third of their budget as internal revenue.

As regards the second demand, a Committee to look into the entire issue of fee structure has been constituted and a final view would be taken once its Report is finalized/examined.

As regards the Suspension of the students is concerned, the suspended students were asked to give an explanation in writing by Thursday, 13th February and only two of the 11 students had responded to the show cause by the stipulated time. Subsequently, the disciplinary committee which met on February 16th decided to recommend the revocation of the suspension of those two students and extended the time for the rest to submit their written replies, if any, till Thursday February 20.

In the light of the above the Administration would appeal to the students not to go ahead with the hunger strike, as it is not advisable to take such an extreme step on matters which are under various stages of consideration and in the best interest of their own health and amiable academic environment of the Institution.