A Panjab University panel has approved a fee hike of 2.5% for first-year classes at its colleges in Chandigarh for the 2015-16 session. The hike proposal was approved in a meeting of the PU’s fee committee on Wednesday that was chaired by dean (university instruction) A K Bhandari. The proposal is yet to be approved by the university’s decision-making bodies – the senate and the syndicate. If the new fee structure comes into effect, the annual fee for a BA course will rise from Rs 12,915 to Rs 13,250. For BSc, it will rise from Rs 14,175 to Rs 14,550. For BCom students, the fee will go up from Rs 18,000 to Rs 19,500. The fee hike for this course has been fixed at Rs 1,500.