Share info on NRI, management seats: FRA to tech colleges

The information, said government officials, will help them reduce fees for academic year 2019-20

The Fee Regulating Authority (FRA) has instructed all unaided private technical education institutes under its purview to share data on the number of students admitted under the management and NRI quotas, as well as the fees charged from them over the past few years.

Private technical colleges had previously been given permission to charge higher fees for NRI and management quota seats. (Representational photo) (HT Photo)

The information, said government officials, will help them reduce fees for academic year 2019-20 to make up for “additional fees” charged by colleges for management and NRI quota seats in the previous academic years. “Since the government agreed with the terms and conditions of the private institutes in 2018-19, to allow them to charge four and five times the regular fees for management and NRI quota seats, the agreement we had with the institutes was that their fee structure will accordingly face changes in the future. We have therefore sought such information,” said an official from FRA.

All institutes offering undergraduate, postgraduate and diploma courses in technical, catering and hotel management as well as the field of applied arts, have been asked to share this information. Until 2017, private institutes were allowed to charge three and four times the regular fees for 35% management and 15% NRI seats. In April 2018, private institutes demanded that they be allowed to charge five times the regular fees for management as well as NRI quota seats. After threatening non-participation in the common admission round conducted by the state, the private institutes were allowed to charge four times the regular fees for management quota seats and five times the fees for NRI quota seats. FRA officials are hoping to receive all information from respective institutes at the earliest, in order to declare the fee structure for the upcoming academic year. While private institutes have currently agreed to share details with the fee regulating authority, many are also not ready to accept any reduction in fees for the 2019-20 academic year.

“Considering fees charged as profit is wrong because we have utilised all extra funds for the development of the institute itself. Hopefully, the FRA will take this into consideration,” said the vice principal of a Mumbai-based technical institute.