Engineering and technical colleges are likely to see a fresh set of minimum and maximum fees from the coming academic year. The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has sent a revised fee structure, including a proposed minimum fee, to the Ministry of Education.
The proposals need a ministry approval before being implemented. This is the first time a minimum fee is likely to be implemented. The AICTE had put a cap on maximum fees over six years ago.
The National Fee Committee, chaired by Justice (retired) BN Srikrishna, had sent the report to the AICTE. After approval from the AICTE, the report was forwarded to the ministry. What are the proposed changed? Here's a short primer.
Why the revision?
These changes come after years of ongoing petitions for a minimum fee in private colleges. Since there was no minimum fee, some states including Telangana and Tamil Nadu had put a cap of Rs 30,000-Rs 40,000.
Hence, colleges in parts of the country argued that they were facing difficulties with day-to-day functioning such as maintaining infrastructure, playing salaries etc.
What are the caps for undergraduate courses?
The annual minimum fee for undergraduate engineering courses has been set at Rs 79,000 while the maximum has been capped at Rs 1.89 lakh.
Meanwhile, for other undergraduate courses in design and applied arts, the proposed minimum is Rs 94,000 and Rs 1.10 lakh respectively. The maximum for the two courses is Rs 2.25 lakh and Rs 2.53 respectively.
What is the proposed fee for postgraduate courses?
The proposed fees for Postgraduate courses in engineering have been set at Rs 1.41 lakh and the maximum is Rs 3.03 lakh. Meanwhile, postgraduate courses in design and applied arts have been set at a minimum of Rs 1.55 lakh and 1.48 lakh respectively. The maximum for both these courses will be Rs. 3.14 lakh and Rs 2.25 lakh respectively.
Have they said anything about diplomas?
The proposed fee slabs for diplomas in the field of engineering has been set to a minimum of Rs 67,000 and a maximum of Rs 1.4 lakh. For a diploma in applied arts, the minimum has been set at Rs 81,000 and the maximum has been set at Rs 1.64 lakh.
Were such caps in place earlier?
In 2015, an appointed committee had recommended a cap on fees, after which state governments were directed to implement the recommendations at private institutes that offer technical and engineering courses.
The committee had recommended a maximum fee of Rs 1.57 lakh to Rs 1.71 lakh per year for two-year MBA courses. The cap for engineering courses had been set to Rs 1.44 lakh to Rs 1.58 lakh per year.
(Sources: The Indian Express and Hindustan Times)
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)