Telangana: One-man panel for fee fixation in colleges

Hyderabad: The Telangana government is looking to appoint a single-member Admissions and Fee Regulatory Committee (AFRC) for fee fixation in colleges in the state.

The government may also set a ceiling on fees that the AFRC will recommend while also making it mandatory for colleges to carry out the exercise only when the government asks for it. The AFRC has to be constituted by the government as mandated by the Supreme Court.

In erstwhile Andhra Pradesh, the AFRC would recommend fee hikes every three years for each discipline like engineering, pharmacy, medicine etc. However, last year, both state governments had ignored the recommendations of the AFRC, fixing fees as per their own discretions.

TS is yet to have an AFRC even though it is almost a year since it was carved out. “We are seeing how AFRC has become a white elephant in AP. The expenditure on it is high with no returns. Their recommendations are often illogical. We are thinking of having just a single retired judge on the committee,” government sources said. The government is also considering fixing a ceiling on the recommendations of the fees by the AFRC.

Telangana State Council of Higher Education (TSCHE) chairman, Prof. T. Papi Reddy, said, “Supreme Court guidelines mandate an AFRC to be set up by the state government. We are thinking about it and the government will constitute it soon.”