Hyderabad: The process of fee revision in professional colleges is in its final stages in Telangana with the new academic year for various courses set to commence soon.
The Fee Regulation Committee has almost finalised fee structures for engineering, pharma, MBA, B.Ed colleges except for medical and dental institutions, which will be completed in the coming days.
In Andhra Pradesh, it has been done for engineering colleges thus far. Fee revision exercise is taken up every three years. The last one was done in 2013. Fees in 260 engineering colleges in Telangana are likely to increase marginally. Most of the colleges that were charging a Rs 35,000 annual fee have demanded it be raised to Rs 45,000.
However, some top performing colleges, especially in the state capital charging Rs 1.13 lakh per annum have sought Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh hike, but the committee may not accept it.
Sources informed that any drastic hike, even if colleges showed necessary annual expenditure records to prove their claims, will ultimately burden the government since it has to reimburse the fee to these private colleges.
Meanwhile, the fee hike in colleges offering pharmacy, MBA, B.Ed courses will be in the range of 15 to 20 per cent. In some colleges it might touch 25 per cent. In the 140 odd pharmacy colleges, the fee structure is in the range of Rs 35,000 to Rs 60,000 in 90 per cent of colleges and in the remaining ten it is between Rs 60,000 and Rs 90,000. A majority of these colleges are happy to continue with the existing fee.
Annual fee in nearly 200-odd B.Ed colleges will be in the range of Rs 18,000 to Rs 35,000. In Andhra Pradesh, the fee structure in nearly 300 engineering colleges is likely to be in the range of Rs 35,000 to Rs 1.4 lakh depending upon the facilities available.
However, nearly 150 colleges have asked the committee to raise the fee from Rs 35,000 to Rs 50,200 citing higher expenses. The panel is carefully going through details submitted by each college.
Some Colleges want old fees to continue
Some educational institutions in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh are in no mood for a fee increase.
Nearly 33 colleges in Andhra Pradesh and a few in Telangana have been collecting an annual fee of Rs 35,000 for the past three years. “The government is giving Rs 35,000 as fee reimbursement to private colleges. If the fee in a particular college is Rs 50,000, students should pay Rs 15,000 on their own. So, many colleges felt that any hike of fee would result in students opting for alternative institutions,” a college owner said.
