(TibetanReview.net, Aug19’22) – Tibetan students admitted to the Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi no longer have to pay international student fees that are several times higher than that for Indian students, said the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) on its Tibet.net website Aug 19, citing a notice issued by the university on its website Jul 1.
The decision followed a meeting the CTA’s education Kalon (Minister) Mrs Tharlam Dolma Changra and Secretary Jigmey Namgyal had with the university’s recently appointed Vice Chancellor Prof Santishree D Pandit on Apr 28 this year.
Until the academic year 2018-19, Tibetan students in India admitted to the university only needed to pay fees at par with their Indian counterparts although admitted as foreign students. That all changed when the university began to require Tibetan students to pay fees fixed for foreign students.
The peculiar situation of the Tibetan youths living in India is that most of them are citizens by law – being offspring of Tibetans born in the country before Jul 1, 1987 – but are still required to register themselves as foreigners with renewable residential permits.
Several universities in India, including Delhi University and even JNU itself, therefore, admitted Tibetan students as foreigners while allowing them to pay fees prescribed for Indian citizens. However, in 2019, JNU, under the previous Vice-Chancellor, ordered Tibetans admitted as foreigners to pay fees applicable to foreign students.
This led to a sharp drop in the number of Tibetan students taking admission in JNU as the fees are beyond their means to pay.
Now by its notice dated July 1, 2022, the university has said, “The fee of Tibetan students admitted for Academic Session 2022-2023 shall be at par with that of the similarly admitted Indian Students.”
The notice, issued as an Addendum, says that the decision was approved by the Academic Council of the university at its meeting held on Jun 21, 2022.