Hyderabad: The OU hostels are full of students who are staying illegally. The university has 16 hostels in its campus with a capacity of 11,000 students, but presently an estimated 30,000 students are living in them.
A senior university official said that there are students living in the hostels who are pursuing their second post graduation course and in some cases, even their fifth.
There are also those who have finished their courses long ago but are still staying on with no fear of the university administration.
A senior official said, “Most of the students who stay illegally or overstay are of the Arts and Law College. Usually, students of Engineering, Technology, Science, Commerce or MBA colleges vacate the hostels because they secure jobs after their PG and move out. But students of Arts courses do not get any jobs. Due to unemployment, they cannot afford renting a house in the city and neither can they go back to their hometowns; they thus continue to live in the university hostels.”
While the number of students in the hostels is swelling, so are the hostel and mess dues, which have bloated to Rs 8-10 crore.
The responsibility of collecting hostel and mess dues from students lies with the principal of the college to which a student belongs.
The dues are to be directly deducted from state and central government scholarships received by students who stay in hostels.
However, students have been opposing this tooth and nail. “The demand for waiving hostel dues by students is a result of action an Arts College principal took about two years ago when he waived nearly Rs 2 crore dues,” said a source.
