‘43% unaided colleges choose not to hike fees’

Days after the state’s Fee Regulating Authority (FRA) said they have asked unaided professional colleges in the state to consider the coronavirus-induced economic slowdown and its effect on households before hiking annual fees, thy released a circular highlighting how at least 43% institutes this year have opted for “no upward revision” of fees: This means at least 43% institutes across technical, medical and agricultural courses will continue for the acadedmic year 2021-22 with the same fees as 2020-21

Days after the state’s Fee Regulating Authority (FRA) said they have asked unaided professional colleges in the state to consider the coronavirus-induced economic slowdown and its effect on households before hiking annual fees, thy released a circular highlighting how at least 43% institutes this year have opted for “no upward revision” of fees: This means at least 43% institutes across technical, medical and agricultural courses will continue for the acadedmic year 2021-22 with the same fees as 2020-21.

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Figures shared by the FRA showed 1,024 of the registered 2,371 private unaided professional institutes in the state have already applied for no upward revision of fees. At least 87 engineering, 26 architecture, 199 polytechnic and 70 pharmacy colleges in the state chose not to hike their fees for the next academic year, and instead continue with the same fees approved by FRA in the previous year. Similarly, two medical, 10 dental as well as 11 institutes offering BSc in Agriculture have decided to not revise their fees.

“A sizeable number of colleges have opted for no upward revision this year, and this could be due to various reasons. We all know that society is facing an extraordinarily challenging time this year. Due to the pandemic, many families are in financial distress due to high unemployment as well as lower salaries and therefore it is the need of the hour to consider the same,” said a circular released by FRA this week.

Established in 2004, the FRA is a quasi-judicial body responsible for regulating the fees of all unaided private professional colleges in the state. Every year, institutes submit proposals for changing their fee structure to the authority, which considers a number of indicators such as nature of the course, number of students, teaching and non-teaching staff, infrastructure and other facilities at the college before fixing the fees.

Colleges then have to display this approved fee structure on their website for students to check at the time of admission. Institutes are usually allowed a 10% fee hike, and also have the option of continuing two years or more with the same fee structure based on the approval of the FRA.

According to figures shared by FRA, the 1,024 institutes choosing to continue with their previous year’s fee structure also includes 95 colleges who opted to not revise their fees for two academic years. “Some of these institutes had applied for a two-year no upward revision in 2019-20 itself, and will continue the same until 2021-22. We should encourage more institutes to take similar steps in order to ensure that no student ends up losing out on education due to lack of funds in such trying times,” said a senior FRA official, on condition of anonymity.

He added that this year, the FRA is also taking into consideration the decrease in expenditure for institutes especially since their campuses were not in use all of last year. “The fact that they incurred less expenditure last year will reflect in their balance sheets that they have to submit along with their proposal. This, too, will help reduce the fees that will be approved for the upcoming academic year,” added the official.

The director of a private medical college in Pune told HT that even though classes were not conducted physically, online classes were conducted regularly and the staff was paid in full. “No staff was sacked neither was their salary deducted because not only was our staff conducting classes but were also running the hospital for several hours at a stretch fighting Covid-19. We also need to take into consideration the considerable expenditure institutes will incur in sanitisation of classes and hostel, so the only way to meet expenditure is by charging fees,” he said.