Lucknow: Lucknow University has taken four major steps to address its budgetary deficit of Rs 72 crore over the next three years.At present, the university’s total annual expenditure, including teachers’ salaries, examination costs and other miscellaneous expenses, stands at Rs 239 crore.Even after tapping all revenue sources — such as course and examination fees, along with a govt grant of Rs 34 crore — the institution continues to face a deficit of Rs 72 crore. To bridge this gap, the university has devised a three-year revenue generation plan.As a first step towards reaching a break-even point, LU estimates additional earnings of Rs 25 crore annually following a fee hike of 20% to 80% in self-financed courses and the addition of 3,350 seats in these programmes.“Through the fee hike, we are expecting to earn Rs 25 crore annually, which is expected to rise to Rs 50 crore next year as a new batch is admitted. This will gradually increase further and help the university meet its deficit. We are also planning expansion of infrastructure and appointment of faculty to accommodate the increased number of students in self-financed programmes,” said LU vice-chancellor Prof JP Saini.With teachers’ salaries and other expenses expected to rise over time, the second revenue-generation measure — already implemented — is the introduction of a consultancy policy.“With rising costs, including increasing dearness allowances for teachers, we have implemented a consultancy policy for the first time. Under this policy, if a teacher independently brings in consultancy work involving technical expertise for industrial, corporate or govt entities, 70% of the revenue will be retained by the teacher while 30% will go to the university. In cases where consultancy opportunities are provided by LU, the revenue will be shared in a 50:50 ratio,” he said.Another major step is the digital monetisation of the faculty of fine arts. A dedicated digital portal is being developed to showcase and sell students’ artworks on leading e-commerce platforms. The earnings will be shared between the university and the students based on cost and contribution.Lastly, the introduction of NRI-sponsored seats in BTech and integrated law programmes is expected to serve as another significant avenue for revenue generation.
