For nearly three weeks, students at Lucknow University (LU) have been protesting a fee hike introduced shortly after the appointment of Vice-Chancellor Jai Prakash Saini. What began as a dialogue between students and the V-C, has since escalated into an indefinite protest, with FIRs filed against eight students.

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Students continue to gather outside the Vice-Chancellor’s office, chanting, “V-C tumko wapas karna hoga, nahi toh daily dharna hoga, (V-C you’ll have to take it back, or else we’ll protest daily)” as they wait for a response to their demands. Prem Prakash Yadav, a second-year student of M.A. Hindi said, “This is a public university, the kids of the poor and farmers come to study here. They deserve to know why they are asked to pay more.”

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The fee hike is expected to affect over 500 colleges affiliated with the Lucknow University, drawing support from leaders across parties, including the Congress, Samajwadi Party, and Apna Dal (Kamerawadi), who have extended logistical and material assistance to the protesters. Despite political affiliations with groups such as NSUI and the Samajwadi Party, student leaders involved in the protest say they are setting aside party differences to focus on the broader issue of affordability in education.

Administrative response and escalation

The controversy began with a notice announcing changes in fee structures and a reduction in seats in self-financed courses. The administration cited financial constraints, stating that the university was struggling to pay its teaching faculty. Apart from which, students also allege that the university is charging them ₹1000 additional fee in M.A. Public Administration.

After asking different faculty and proctorial board members for an explanation, the students reportedly met the Vice-Chancellor twice where he stated the reason that the university has not received enough grants and is unable to keep up with the required budget. However, during the third attempt to meet the V-C, the students say they were asked to wait by the proctor. After an hour of waiting, the students allege that Prof. Saini was seen leaving the premises from a different door under police protection. The students then followed him outside and sat in front of his car to draw attention to their demands but were unsuccessful.

During this exchange, the students allege that one of the students was manhandled by the V-C and his hand was turned around his back. The following morning, several students received suspension and expulsion notices through WhatsApp. With semester-end examinations underway, three expelled students have allegedly been barred from appearing.

University’s registrar, Prof. Bhavana Mishra, while talking to The Hindu, says that the students were given an opportunity to defend themselves before the FIR was filed. She also stated that the V-C listened to all the students’ concerns individually and they even left satisfied with the answers. Prof. Abhishek Tiwari, who is also on the proctorial board, agreed to witness this as well. However, the students deny this narrative.

Out of the eight students who went to talk to the V-C, three are expelled, two are to perform community service and pay a fine, while the rest three are alumni. One of them is Vishal Singh. After doing his bachelors and master’s from LU, he was now seeking admission for Ph.D. Sociology. Despite clearing the entrance, his result is being held off with the remark “Result withheld as per report of Proctor, LU”.

“They have restricted my access to campus. The police keep telling me to leave but I haven’t received a written notice about this restriction. Maybe the police have it.,” said Mr. Singh.

Currently, multiple cases are ongoing in Allahabad High Court [IY1] including the subject of Mr. Singh’s admission. “They’re saying we disrupted rules and regulations, but we only asked questions,” said LLB student Harshit Shukla.

Prem Prakash and Prince Prakash allege that the Vice-Chancellor’s actions have been intentional to suppress campus dissent. “They have locked my hostel room along with others involved in this protest. We have been sitting here every day, so they have cut the nearby supply to water and electricity,” says Prince Prakash Yadav, a student of M.A. Public Administration at the university. Along with Mr. Prince, Mr. Shukla’s hostel room has also been closed.

Protesters at the site say that they wait in the daytime heat and sleep here at night, despite more than a fortnight having passed already, no one has approached them for a dialogue directly. “They called us criminal offenders and said that we only come to college to do politics. We are good students; I have passed both my degrees here with First division. But they only communicate with us through the court now,” said Mr. Singh.

While talking about the fee hike, Prof. Mishra said, “Private universities like BBD are able to get their income, where do we generate our budget?” She added that apart from the fee hike and increase in seats, the university has also introduced around 20 new programmes.

In LU, the classroom structure is divided into two parts, with one half being the regular seats and the other half being ‘self-financed’. The university is also pushing to introduce more seats with fee hike. “They don’t have to increase the fees in proportion to how many seats they are introducing. They keep increasing both. Moreover, they should ask the government to increase the budget, why should the students have to suffer?” said Mr. Singh.

Economic challenges and student burden

Students argue that rising costs are making education increasingly inaccessible. Mr. Shukla, a second-year LLB student and one of those expelled, pointed to irregularities in examination results. “Our semester results showed many students failing in at least two papers. After we challenged it, we had to file an RTI costing ₹300,” he said. The revised results reportedly showed discrepancies across multiple papers, leaving concerns unresolved.

Students must also pay ₹2,500 for re-evaluation of answer sheets which is an amount significantly higher than the ₹1,200 charged in 2016, according to Prof. Mishra.

Multiple students at the protest site complained about the cumulative burden of various fees during their time at the university. “In some families, if the crop doesn’t sell, they won’t be able to pay the fees. Many students at the university work as gig workers or teach tuition just to sustain themselves,” says Prince Prakash Yadav.

In response to this, the registrar said “There are private universities that charge way more fees than us. If the student is not able to get into LU, they take admission in private colleges. We are creating opportunities by taking less fees.”

The registrar also points to fee reimbursements through the social welfare department in public universities which provides financial assistance to economically weaker students and reserved categories. “We actively make efforts to raise awareness about these schemes,” she added.

Student politics, unions, and demands

Of the eight students, some were suspended or expelled while others were left with a fine and community service. Prasaan Shukla, a 24-year-old student of Ancient India History, was left with a fine of ₹5,000 and 15 days of community service, answered this query differently. He guessed that it was because he showed no activity in the video or photos that the university had of the incident. Rustam Singh Yadav, who also faced the same fine and community service said that he was there to talk to the V-C about a personal matter which was unrelated to that of the rest.

Students have also highlighted the absence of a functioning student union as a key issue. “We protested for 250 days earlier demanding a student union. During a hunger strike, I had to be hospitalised, but the administration withheld our admit cards and said the matter would go to court,” Prasaan Shukla said, adding that the case remains unresolved.

Students cite other instances of delayed administrative response or hostility. Nine law students were allegedly stopped from giving their exams and were asked to pay ₹5000 fine for questioning basic infrastructural facilities like clean water. “They drink from Bisleri bottles but can’t supply clean water,” said Mr. Singh.

Mr. Singh also points to the recent Bar Council of India’s (BCI) visit to the campus to introduce a five-year integrated BBA-LL.B. programme from 2026-27 academic session. According to the students at the protest, expelled university student, Satyam Yadav made a video in which he alleged that another faculty’s building was shown as the Law programme’s building for the BCI visit. The approval by BCI has allowed the university’s newly sanctioned course to have 180 seats, divided into three sections of 60 students each.

A member of the proctorial board who wishes to maintain anonymity said that in their internal meetings there had already been talks of switching building between different courses. “The university had already talked of eventually changing the building in question to ‘faculty of law’. Some students only think about how they can bring themselves into focus,” they added.

What’s next?

Students held a Mahasabha on June 19, where current and previous leaders of Allahabad University and Lucknow University joined to give speeches and show support. Uttar Pradesh president for AISA, Manish Kumar and State General Secretary, Samajwadi Chhatra Sabha, Awanish Kumar Yadav were also among the leaders present.

Manish Kumar in his speech said, “If parents are not able to afford the high fees, then they might stop women’s education.” Awanish Kumar Yadav said that the fight to remove fee hike has extended to universities of other cities. Chandrakant from Allahabad University points to a Danik Bhaskar report that stated more than half of the universities in Uttar Pradesh are owned by ministers.

Anvesha Bajpayee, who was the first woman to hold a position in LU’s Student Union and is currently an Assistant Professor, was also present at the Mahasabha. Roop Rekha Verma, who was also LU’s Vice Chancellor, had previously shown support.

Ms. Bajpayee talks about her time at the university, “When we used to protest, the authorities would come sit with us and talk. If the protest right now has been going on for so long and no authority has come to talk, this means that voices are being silenced.”

Jyoti Kumar Rao, an alumnus of the university, is a lawyer currently representing Vishal Singh. He says that if they are unsuccessful, this might be the last batch to ever stage a protest. “The university is trying to implement a unified model to end the university model of diversity. We can see this with the dress code proposal,” adds Mr. Rao.

The dialogue regarding fee hike is yet to happen. Meanwhile, the students remain at their protest site for the unforeseeable future.

(Ishita Yadav is a student in convergent journalism at the AJK Mass Communication Research Centre, Jamia Millia Islamia.)