FTII, Satyajit Ray Institute reduce joint entrance exam fees following hunger strike, protests by students over hike

Aspirants taking the joint entrance test for admission to the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune and the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute (SRFTI), Kolkatta are all set to get fees relief. The reduction in fees follows five days of relay hunger strike by students and protests of 10 days by students at both the institutes.A five-member committee headed by the governing council of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) was tasked to revise the fee structure and look into the concerns of the students.The special governing council meeting on 27 December had said that the fees would be reduced, in principle. On Saturday, FTII, and SRFTI jointly announced reduction in the fee structure for the Joint Entrance Test (JET) 2020 fee with immediate effect for admissions to both Institutes.“Candidates who have already applied as per the earlier announced fee structure will be refunded the difference. The committee will now take up the review of fee structure of regular courses in FTII,” said Bhupendra Kainthola, Director, FTII reports Hindustan Times.According to the Hindustan Times, the revised fees for General Category candidates will be Rs 2,000 for applying to any of the courses from either of the three groups (A, B & C ). For scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and persons with disabilities (SC, ST and PwD) category candidates, the fee would be Rs 600. For applying to every additional course from the remaining two groups, the fee for General Category will be Rs 1,000 and for SC,ST and PwD categories Rs 300 .On December 16, Film & Television Institute of India (FTII) students- Aadhith V Sathwin, Rajarshi Mujumdar - had proceeded on a hunger strike since to protest the 10 per cent yearly fee hike and also the "exorbitant" entrance exam charge, and demanding a roll-back.Check out some of the visuals from the protests"There has been a 10 per cent hike in academic fees year-on-year since the batch of 2013. From the annual fee of Rs 55,380 for the 2013 batch, the fee for the upcoming 2020 batch has reached Rs 1,18,323," said one of the students sitting on the hunger strike.He had said in addition to this, there has been an "exorbitant" rise in the JET (Joint Entrance Test for both FTII and Kolkata-based Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute or SRFTI) application fee."From Rs 1,500 in 2015, the entrance exam fee has gone up to a maximum of Rs 10,000 for JET 2020. The exorbitant hike in the entrance fee shows that the institute is making itself inaccessible to a large section of aspirants," he had said.The FTII Students Association (FSA), in a statement here, said two more students joined the indefinite hunger strike on Thursday "in response to the authorities turning a blind eye towards their concerns".It expressed concern over the failing health of the agitating students and demanded Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar's intervention on the issue of tuition and entrance exam fees hike.(With inputs from Press Trust of India)