The Jadavpur University authorities on Wednesday decided to consider a hike in tuition and other fees for the students of all three faculties.

The executive council, JU’s highest decision-making body, accepted the plan while discussing budget proposals for the next financial year.

“The university spends about Rs 2 lakh every year on a student. The fees are nominal in comparison with the huge expenditure. We have to raise the fees very soon,” said a senior official of the university.

The monthly tuition fees of a JU engineering student is Rs 200 while science and arts students pay Rs 125 and Rs 75 per month, respectively.

The university had taken up the fee-hike proposal before the Lok Sabha elections in April but backed out fearing “student unrest”.

“But now we realise that the fee hike is inevitable. Given the increasing expenses, we need to pass on a part of the burden to the students,” added the JU official.

Earlier this year, the university had set up a committee to explore ways to augment income. The committee had recommended an upward revision of students’ fees, said a source.

The panel found that the university spends Rs 2 crore annually for paying electricity bills and Rs 20 crore for maintaining the campus, according to the source.

“There is no doubt that a fee hike is overdue. The university is totally dependent on state government aid and needs to increase its income,” said a JU faculty member.

The JU executive council on Wednesday punished four students for creating trouble in the women’s hostel in August. Two girls suspended were expelled from the hostel while the other two were suspended from the hostel for six months.

The trouble had started after a large number of students gheraoed the hostel superintendent protesting her alleged highhandedness in allocating rooms. The executive council stood by the superintendent’s decision during Wednesday’s meeting.

The authorities on Wednesday also accepted a proposal — drawn up by the registrar and submitted to vice-chancellor P.N. Ghosh — to overhaul the university’s security arrangements.

The registrar had recently submitted a proposal for stepping up security on the campus after an outsider entered the electronics engineering department and attacked a student.