Centre fixes fee slabs for pvt institutes after panel report

NEW DELHI: The cost of technical and management education at privately run institutions in India will now have to be within a price band specified by an expert panel, the recommendations of which has been accepted by the education ministry, officials said on Tuesday.

The revision comes over six years after the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) put a cap on the maximum fee private technical institutes could charge following the recommendations of a committee headed by former Supreme Court judge BN Srikrishna. So far, there was no minimum fee limit.

The national fee committee has now fixed a minimum and maximum fee limit for various courses. For diploma courses, the minimum fee cannot be below ₹67,900 a year, while the maximum has been capped at ₹1,64,700 a year, the panel suggested in its report, a copy of which HT has reviewed.

For undergraduate courses, the minimum and maximum annual charges have been fixed at ₹79,600 and ₹1,89,800, respectively. Similarly, postgraduate courses will cost between ₹1,41,200 and ₹3,04,000 a year. For management courses, the band will have to be between an annual ₹85,000 and ₹1,95,200.

The price bands become effective from the upcoming academic session for the next five years. “The prescribed fees will be applicable in the year of admission, and there will be a 5% increase in fees every following year of programme,” the report said. “We have written to all principal secretaries of technical education of all states and union territories, and their fee regulatory committees, informing them about the panel’s recommendations and asked them to adopt it,” AICTE chairperson Anil Dattatraya Sahasrabudhe told HT.

“We will also be submitting an affidavit in the Delhi high court, where a case is going on regarding the issue, and inform the court that we have finalised the minimum fee limit,” he added.

Some colleges and associations had moved court, demanding a minimum fee threshold.

The Srikrishna panel recommended that the AICTE makes the fee norms applicable to all institutes that come under its purview.