Professional course fees slashed by 20%

The fee regulating body found many colleges showing excess expenditure to extract more money from students

The state’s Fee Regulating Authority (FRA) has slashed the fees charged by most colleges that offer professional courses, including medical, engineering, management, pharmacy, law and architecture, by an average of 20%.

The move, which is a first, came after the regulator found that many colleges were showing excess expenditure to extract more money from students. The authority has also decided to stop colleges from making any changes in the fee structure during the course .

Established in 2004, the FRA or Shulka Niyamat Samiti (earlier known as Shikshan Shulka Samiti), is responsible for regulating the fees for all the unaided private professional colleges in the state. Every year, colleges submit proposals for change in their fee structure. The FRA considers a number of indicators such as nature of the course, number of students, teaching and nonteaching staff, infrastructure and other facilities at the college before fixing the fee. “The colleges are generally allowed a 10% fee hike every year,” said Ravindra Dahad, a member of FRA.

He added that for the first time, the authority has fixed the fee for this academic year. "The students are yet to know the exact fee for the course at the time of admission, because FRA will decide on the fee structure well after admissions. But we have now fixed the fees for the ongoing session as well as the upcoming year," he said.

Dahad added that the students at most professional colleges in the state will now pay a fee that is substantially lesser when compared to 2015-16. "Normally the colleges would have increased the fees by 20% in a period of 2 years but we have reduced it by 20% instead," he said. While some colleges face as much as 50% fee reduction, others have been allowed to hike the fees.

While colleges said that they have not received any explanation from the regulator for the fee reduction, sources said that they colleges have been unfairly charging more from the students for non-existent expenditure. "We found many colleges illegally charging students for using the library, laboratories and for identity cards. Some have inflated their electricity bills, while others the number of staff members. In some cases, colleges showed fake admission reports of reserved category students to receive benefits from the government's social justice departments," said the source.

The decision has come as a relief to students and parents, who have been fighting against the high cost of education in professional colleges.

"We had requested the FRA to reduce the fees in medical colleges as they were misusing the money. I am very happy about their decision," said Sudha Shenoy, a parent.

However, colleges have criticised the move.

"The authority hasn't explained why it reduced the fees. The number of students have drastically reduced this year but the expenditure has not changed, as we can't sack our existing staff. We have properly audited our accounts," said Zaheer Kazi, president, Anjuman-i-islam, which runs several professional institutes in the city and suburbs.

Maharashtra State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (MSCPCR) on Fri day received a complaint from a father who said that a school in Dadar had not allowed his three children to enter it for five months because he had failed to pay the year’s fees in advance.

In his complaint, the parent said that he couldn’t afford to pay the yearly fee of Rs2.1 lakh for his children all at once. He wanted to pay it monthly, but the school insisted on payment for six months or a year. Besides the dues, the school has asked him to pay a fine of Rs 7,100 for defaulting.

“Despite repeated requests the school hasn’t budged on its stand. Five months ago, they refused to allow my children on the premises,” said the parent

The man had defaulted last year too, but had later paid the amount with the late fee.

The school denied the allega tions and said that the parent stopped sending his children to school, after they reminded him to clear his dues. “Last year, the fees were not paid and we had to pressure him into paying up. It was the same story this year too and so we asked him to pay in advance,” said the school chair man. “We thought that he had got his kids admitted else where.”

The chairman added that they offered to transfer the three children to the school’s aided section, which charges a lower fee. “It seems he wanted his children to continue study ing in the unaided section with out paying the fee,” said the chairman.

“The schools pay teachers on a monthly basis. So why should parents be forced to pay at one go?” said Jayant Jain, president Forum for Fairness in Educa tion, an NGO.