'60% students got financial aid from Ashoka University': Sanjeev Bikhchandani counters Mohandas Pai's 'expensive' remark

The debate began when Bikhchandani quoted an opinion piece about the "declining popularity" of Delhi University (DU).

Around 60 percent of students who have enrolled in Ashoka University so far have received finacial aid, according to the data shared by the institute's co-founder Sanjeev Bikhchandani on X (formely Twitter) on April 17, 2024.

Bikhchandani claimed that 7,544 students have enrolled at Ashoka University since inception. Of these 4,559 (around 60 percent) have received financial aid from the university.

"...Of these 1837 (approx 24% of all students) have received a 100% tuition fee waiver. In addition to this tuition waiver a significant number have received a waiver of hostel fees and on mess food. And some have also got an additional stipend for other personal expenses....", he wrote on X.

Bikhchandani was responding to former CFO of IT major Infosys, Mohandas Pai when the latter remarked on on X on April 15  that education offered by Sonipat-based Ashoka University is “expensive for the majority of Indians and too elitist”.

“Ashoka education is too expensive for the majority of Indians and too elitist. Focused fully on the west as if preparing Indians for the US. You need to have much more scholarships and create stars for India not students who aspire for the US-See Ashoka as a stepping stone,” Pai wrote on X.

However, Bikhchandani responded saying Ashoka has a generous scholarship programme. According to him, approximately 60 percent of class at Ashoka is on some form of financial aid from the university, ranging from 25 percent to 100 percent.

@sbikh Ashoka education is too expensive for the majority of Indians and too elitist.Focused fully on the west as if preparing Indians for the US. You need to have much more scholarships and create stars for India not students who aspire for the US-See Ashoka as a stepping stone https://t.co/aHhYvvgpbz

— Mohandas Pai (@TVMohandasPai) April 15, 2024

“....Admission is given on merit and financial aid on need. Also It is a misconception that Ashoka mostly trains people to go overseas for further education. We recently did an analysis of every class that has graduated from Ashoka. We went student by student and tracked what they were doing and what their career trajectory was after graduating from Ashoka,” wrote Bikhchandani, who is also founder of Info Edge, which owns Naukri.com.

Bikhchandani claimed approximately 70 percent of Ashoka alumni are working in for profit private sector companies in India while other significant numbers are working in the not for profit sector in India .

“Over a dozen in the civil services. More than thirty have graduated from the IIMs. And this year alone sixteen Ashoka Alumni graduated from ISB. And one Ashoka Alumnus is a professional poker player (I loved this little unexpected nugget of information). And yes some Ashoka Alumni do find themselves going to some of the best universities globally - for PhDs, to business schools and to study public policy,” Bikhchandani added.

Thank you for raising this very important issue Mohan and giving me an opportunity to address it. Ashoka has a very generous scholarship programme. Approximately sixty percent of class at Ashoka is on some form of financial aid from the University - ranging from 25% to 100%.… https://t.co/OhEVDSjaDd

— Sanjeev Bikhchandani (@sbikh) April 16, 2024

The debate began when Bikhchandani quoted an opinion piece about the "declining popularity" of Delhi University (DU). While disagreeing with the opinion piece, Bikhchandani said there is a constant discussion at Ashoka to attract students who get admission to “good DU colleges”.