Caving in to students’ demands, the Punjabi University administration has announced a partial rollback of the recently revised fee structure, saying the decision was intended to reduce the financial burden on students and ensure access to affordable higher education.The announcement came as students continued their eight-day pucca morcha outside the Vice-Chancellor’s office, demanding the withdrawal of the recent hike in tuition and hostel fees, renovation of hostels, improvement of basic amenities and upgradation of campus infrastructure. They had also raised the issue of delays in the disbursement of salaries to teaching faculty.The university administration said the fee structure had been revised after nearly five years, during which tuition fees and hostel charges had largely remained unchanged. The revision, it said, was necessitated by the university’s prolonged financial difficulties and the need to mobilise additional internal resources to sustain academic, research and student-support activities.Before revising hostel charges, the university had undertaken a comparative assessment of the fees charged by Panjab University, Chandigarh, and Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar. It said that even after the proposed revision, hostel charges at Punjabi University remained relatively modest compared with those at the two universities.However, after considering the socio-economic background of a large section of its students and holding consultations with stakeholders, the university administration decided to roll back the fee increase partially.Following the rollback, the effective increase in fees will now be around 7.5 per cent, despite the revision having been implemented after a gap of five years.The university administration said the decision represented a balance between its financial constraints and the need to ensure that higher education remained accessible to students from all sections of society.The administration reiterated that student welfare remained at the centre of its policy decisions. It said efforts would continue to strengthen the university’s financial position while maintaining the quality of teaching, research, infrastructure and student services.Meanwhile, Vice-Chancellor (V-C) Dr Jagdeep Singh reaffirmed the university’s commitment to academic excellence and to providing accessible, inclusive and affordable higher education to the youth of the state.