AICTE for minimum fee for tech courses

NEWDELHI: A year after the regulatory body put a ceiling on the maximum fee technical institutes can charge students, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has now prescribed a minimum fee for the colleges governed by it.

A government-appointed committee had recommended putting a cap on the tuition fee last year, following which AICTE directed all the states to implement the recommendation at all private institutes for technical courses, including engineering and MBA.

But no word on minimum fee meant several states lowered the fee for various courses.

The AICTE has written to the Justice Srikrishna committee that was set up to fix a fee cap for technical institutes, asking them to prescribe the minimum fee as well.

“A number of institutes have written to us that in some states they have been asked to lower the fee to ₹30,000 per semester which is not feasible. They said they are adhering to the maximum fee cap but a minimum limit should also be set. We have written to the committee and they have agreed to it. It will be worked out soon,” said a senior AICTE official. The AICTE last year made it mandatory to implement proposals of the National Fee Committee, headed by former SC Judge BN Srikrishna, which was formed to prescribe fee guidelines for technical institutions.