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Decoding Higher Education Costs Across India's Top Government Universities
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News18•12-10-2026, 13:25
Decoding Higher Education Costs Across India's Top Government Universities
- •Government university degrees in India are widely considered affordable, but overall costs include various compulsory charges beyond just tuition fees.
- •JNU has kept its annual tuition fee for B.A. students unchanged at Rs 216 for a decade, alongside minimal miscellaneous annual charges.
- •Jamia Millia Islamia increased its annual fee for B.A. Hons Urdu from Rs 7,260 in 2016 to Rs 10,175 for the 2026-27 academic session, though no further hikes are planned for that year.
- •Delhi University has seen notable fee increases, with Department of Computer Science Master's programmes and specialized MBA courses rising significantly over recent years.
- •Students must budget for comprehensive expenses including admission, examination, library, medical, hostel fees, food, and transport rather than relying solely on tuition numbers.
Key Questions Answered
JNU's annual tuition fee for B.A. (Hons.) students was Rs 216 in its 2016–17 prospectus and remains the same in the 2026–27 undergraduate prospectus, showing no tuition increase over the decade.
Students at Allahabad University recently held protests against fee hikes, alleging repeated increases in course fees and demanding a complete rollback of those increases.
Delhi University's MBA programmes in International Business, Human Resource Development and Business Analytics have an annual fee of Rs 57,279 for the 2026–27 academic session.
