Jawaharlal Nehru University has slashed fees for international students by up to 80% amid a sharp decline in enrollments. The revamped fee structure will apply from this academic year and primarily impact students heading to Delhi from SAARC countries. The change in tuition fees will vary between 33% and 80% and vary by course and region.
According to reports, the largest fee cuts have been offered to students from the SAARC region as well as African and Latin American nations. It aims to ease financial barriers for those coming from economically disadvantaged backgrounds.
Under the new structure, students from SAARC will now pay merely $200 for humanities courses and $300 for the science stream. Meanwhile, African and Latin American countries will see an 80% dip in fees to $400 to $300 for courses. Students from West Africa will reportedly pay $500 for humanities courses and $600 for science curricula. For the remaining students, fees have been whittled down to $1000 for humanities and $1250 for science.
All international students will also have to pay a one-time registration fee of $500.
What had been the JNU fees until now?
The most recent prospectus released by the university had indicated that foreign students would pay $1900 per semester as a tuition fee for science courses, and $1500 per semester for humanities and social sciences. This applied to courses such as MTech, MPH, MA, MSc, MCA, BA(Hons), the BSc-M.Sc integrated programme and even part-time programmes.
Meanwhile foreign nationals from SAARC countries will be charged a significantly lower tuition fee between $700 per semester for science disciplines and $600 for others. Tibetan students however face fees at par with their Indian counterparts.