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The Hindu
The Hindu
National
Special Correspondent

Fee hike for engg. courses unlikely this year

Tuition fees in engineering colleges may not be increased this year as a majority of them are not willing to press for any hike with the Admission and Fee Regulation Committee (AFRC) for technical and social reasons.

Several colleges that have recently submitted proposals to the Telangana Admission and Fee Regulatory Committee (TAFRC) have maintained that they are not seeking any hike, while only a handful of others have sought a small hike based on their income and expenditure details. The fee is decided based on the audited financial statements of each college.

One reason that the colleges could not press for any hike was that they had to submit their realistic expenditure in the colleges during the last two years. There was no way the colleges could fudge the expenditure figures with no student coming to the campus or lecturers attending in the past two years due to COVID-19. All the colleges conducted online classes, which meant comparatively little expenditure on the management’s part.

At the same time, colleges were collecting almost the same fee that they had decided in the pre-COVID period. In Telangana, the minimum fee for the B.Tech course is Rs 35,000 and the maximum is Rs 1.34 lakh, which only a few colleges charge.

Among the 158 private engineering colleges in Telangana, 20 collect the minimum fee of ₹35,000 while about 100 colleges charge less than ₹70,000. Only a few well-known old colleges and those sought-after by candidates have been able to charge over ₹1 lakh for the past three years.

Meanwhile, TAFRC, headed by Justice (retired) Swaroop Reddy has called managements of 79 colleges for personal hearing from May 16 to 25. Colleges will be asked to explain their arguments for seeking changes in the existing fee structure.

The TAFRC will decide the fee for all the professional courses, including engineering programmes offered by private unaided professional colleges in the State. The revised fee will be applicable for a three-year block period from 2022-23 to 2024-25.

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