The average day of a college student begins roughly at the same time as their school counterparts. With long hours of travel and a fledgling DMRC, snoozing the morning alarm isn’t exactly an option. When they see the LED indicator in red showcasing the rising population of the capital city at the gate of Institute of Economic Growth (currently at 32,066,000), they realize why they did not seem to have any personal space on the metros. The students do not mind space as much as the rising costs of their transit. With no relaxation or passes for college students, almost half the revenue of DMRC must be a direct result of our expenditure. 

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Coupled with that is the rising rickshaw fare. They saw it rise from ten rupees to fifteen and twenty doesn’t seem too far away. This led to a change of heart and many students resorted to walking from the Vishwavidyalaya Metro Station to their colleges in North Campus. Maybe the rise in fare could be considered an initiative for public health and wellness (albeit indirectly). 

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The satisfaction derived from their successive lectures rightly follows the law of diminishing marginal utility. The opportunity cost of maintaining a good attendance includes but is not limited to: declining physical and mental health, exhaustion, loss of internship opportunities, loss of industry courses that they could have undertaken and the least important of all, their sanity. Objectively speaking, the opportunity costs seem pretty high. As if that was not enough, the universities seem to be following a ‘Great Depression’ Model', with a horizontal Aggregate Supply (AS) Curve of lecturers and professors. In such a scenario, the education market does not seem to be reaching equilibrium anytime soon.

While we are discussing a holistic university experience, how can we ignore the topic of food? College students are talented enough to sniff out the places that peddle cheap food. Yet the rising costs are burning a hole in their pockets. It is well known that luxuries do not essentially follow the Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility. Food, at the moment gives greater utility with each unit consumed and is a luxury in itself. The question is, ‘To eat or not to eat.’ 

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The university recently released the tentative calendar. Given that these students gave exams last month itself, with a negligible semester break, the trauma is not something they are ready for. But then the impending realization hits them. The semester has been cut short to 3 months, essentially meaning that they need to increase their Average Study Hours per Day or increase their probability of flunking. The latter seems more likely. 

To maintain a strong economy and to inch closer to equilibrium, any economic policy aims to achieve certain goals such as stable prices, increase in employment rates and economic growth amongst others. Students currently also wish to formulate a policy to achieve mental stability, increase in grades and academic and personal growth. But whether this policy will be fruitful considering the extraneous variables, is a discussion for another day.

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