Over the previous five years, DU’s revenue collection from student fees has significantly increased, more than doubling its earnings. Despite the inefficient use of UGC grant funds, the university collected more than Rs 200 crore from this source in the most recent fiscal year.
Data from the university’s finance department indicates that internal receipts, primarily comprising student fees along with other sources like consultancy fees, reached nearly Rs 100 crore in the 2019-2020 fiscal year. By the 2023-24 year, this amount had surged to over Rs 200 crore, highlighting a substantial growth in the university’s financial inflow. However, despite this increase, the proportion of UGC grants in the university’s overall funding has shown a decreasing trend.
DU’s revenue collection in 2019-2020 was around ₹600 crore from the UGC, increasing to nearly ₹800 crore by 2023-2024. Despite this rise, data shows that the share of UGC grants in the university’s funding has decreased, dropping from 83% in 2019-2020 to 77% in 2023-2024.
A professor from DU’s commerce department highlighted that this reduction reflects a declining reliance on public funding for the university’s operations. The professor also pointed out that DU’s revenue collection has surpassed its expenditure in the past two years, suggesting an underutilisation of the funds received. University officials have not yet responded to this information.
In July, DU implemented a fee hike across its degree programs, with PhD courses seeing a significant 60 percent increase. This came after a previous hike in December last year, when the university raised its annual charges by 46 percent, marking the second fee increase within a single year.
Several faculty members at DU have expressed concerns, suggesting that the fee hikes may be an attempt to recover interest payments on a loan taken from the Higher Education Financing Agency (HEFA). HEFA provides financial support for building educational infrastructure and advancing research in India’s top academic institutions.
Democratic Teachers’ Front (DTF) secretary Abha Dev voiced concern over the government’s growing insistence that educational institutions make their own money, with student fees being a major funding source. Dev also emphasised the tension between the mission of central institutions, which are supposed to make education accessible to all, and programs like the HEFA, which she claims jeopardise this goal.
According to financial records provided by the DU for the fiscal year 2023–24, grants from the UGC accounted for 76.6% of the university’s funding. The remaining 23.4% was provided by internal sources, mostly through tuition fees. In October of last year, the HEFA authorised a loan of Rs 930 crore for Delhi University (DU). According to the terms of the loan, the university will pay the remaining 10% of the interest, while the state will cover the remaining 90%.
DU has laid forth a plan to raise money from both internal and external sources in light of the UGC’s declining award share. Several medium- and long-term revenue-generating methods are part of this strategy, which is described in full in the university’s Institutional Development Strategy (IDP) for the years 2024–2047.
Leasing its current facilities, including auditoriums, classrooms, labs, and guest residences, to other organisations is one of the main strategies the institution plans to deploy. In order to promote internal development, DU also intends to leverage contractual manufacturing to open department-specific gift shops.
DU also wants to establish a chair specifically for international companies. Through this program, businesses will be encouraged to sponsor and promote university research that fits with their interests and fosters innovation that is relevant to the sector. The institution will also set up an investment committee if necessary. As stated in the IDP, this committee will be responsible for monitoring and evaluating the university’s financial strategies to make sure they support its objectives and priorities.
