PU banks heavily on NRI seats

CHANDIGARH: The NRI-sponsored seats are a virtual goldmine for Panjab University. In fact, this category provides little more than 75 per cent of the university''s total income from tuition fee of its 52 departments.
As per the budget estimates of financial year 2004-05, while the total tuition fee income is projected at around Rs 7.67 crore (against Rs 6.92 crore last year), the NRI-sponsored students are expected to contribute Rs 5.8 crore.
Of the around 6000 students enrolled in PU departments, the NRIsponsored students do not exceed more than 10-15 per cent in each department. While the tuition fee of post-graduate non-NRI category students is around Rs 70 per month, the fee in the most sought-after departments under NRI category exceeds Rs two lakh a year. Half of the money coming from NRI-sponsored students directly goes to the fund for higher education.
Creation of more NRI sponsored seats is often criticised by those who see it as a compromise of merit for money. But the steady increase in the contribution of NRI-sponsored students to the university''s income supports the line of thinking that NRI students actually help the university subsidise education for others.
In fact, the income generated from NRI-sponsored students has steadily increased over the last few years. From a little more than Rs 3.9 crore in 2001-02, it went up to Rs 5.5 crore in 2002-03. Last year, the revised estimates put the tuition fee income from NRI-sponsored students at Rs 5.8 crore.
However, the contribution of the tuition fee component in the total income of the university stands at a mere 17 per cent of the projected income in 2004-05, which is around Rs 44.69 crore. But, the biggest component income remains the examination fee, which is expected to generate Rs 20 crore in 2004-05.