Cuttack: The Ravenshaw Bikash Abhijan (RBA) has urged the VC to bring out a "white paper" on the varsity's financial condition.

The RBA, that comprises socio-political activists and former student leaders, made the demand following the varsity's decision to hike fees for self-financed courses.

Expressing dismay over the fee hike, RBA activists alleged that the sweeping fee hike for self-financed courses and introduction of self-financed seats by increasing the student intake in certain departments was "tantamount to privatisation of education in the university".

RBA president Chittaranjan Mohanty said: "If the funds provided by the government is inadequate and the university is often facing hardships in running the institution, we want the vice-chancellor to bring out a white paper as early as possible instead of going for a fee hike, which is never a solution."

The RBA wants the white paper to contain details of the varsity's financial condition with details of income, including grants from the government, expenditure and financial involvement to fund future development projects such as the development of a second campus.

"Such a document would provide a weapon in the hands of civil society to build up public opinion and put pressure on the government to sanction adequate funds for Ravenshaw," Mohanty said.

Vice-chancellor Ishan Patro, however, claimed that Ravenshaw University had the cheapest course fees in comparison to other universities in Odisha and the hike was necessary to increase the overall quality of education.

"Though the university charges a maximum Rs 500 for undergraduate courses, there has been no hike for them. The course fee has been hiked only for self-financed courses to make them sustainable," he said.

He claimed that the state government had assured support for self-financed courses that are found to be sustainable.

Sources said the university runs mostly from income generated from self-financed courses - around Rs 10 crore a year.

The university had introduced the self-financed courses in public-private-participation mode following MoUs with service providers. But it discontinued the practice in 2014 to adhere to University Grants Commission norms.

The varsity increased the annual fees for the courses ranging from 14 per cent to 60 per cent, claiming that it was facing a cash crunch.

The fees have been hiked by Rs 5,000 a year for five of seven self-financed courses. For the other two courses, the fees have hiked by Rs 15,000 and Rs 17,000, respectively.