Soon, a panel to decide fees in private varsities
AS PER NEW RULE, PVT UNIVERSITIES WOULD HAVE TO DISCLOSE THE FEES THEY DECIDE TO THE STATE
MUMBAI: In a bid to bring transparency in the fees of the courses offered at self-financed universities in Maharashtra, the state government has decided that the fee structure will be decided by a varsity-level ‘fee fixation committee’. However, their colleges will continue to have the autonomy to decide their fees.
The fee fixation committee will include members of the respective universities’ academic and management council members, retired judges, former vice-chancellors, chartered accountants and Padma Bhushan awardees.
The decision is part of a new set of rules and regulations for self-financed or private universities. The state higher and technical education department will soon notify these rules, after receiving a green signal from the law and judiciary department.
According to the new rules, the private universities will have to disclose the various fees they decide to the government. Students and other stakeholders can get their grievances resolved by Maharashtra Higher Education Development Council (MAHED).
The new set of rules come around a month after Ravindra Waikar, the minister of state for technical and higher education, proposed that the state government decide and regulate the fees of courses offered at private, or self-financed, universities.
In a letter to chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, Waikar, who belongs to the Shiv Sena, which is an alliance partner of the ruling BJP government, alleged that the universities are functioning in a high-handed manner, as there is no government control over these institutes.
As many as 13 private universities have come up in the state after the government enacted the Maharashtra Self-financed Universities (Establishment and Regulation) Act in 2011. Letters of intent (LOIS) have been granted to five more organisations which have proposed to set up such institutes.
The state government has granted permission for these varsities in order to reduce burden on its public universities while making a variety of education programmes available to the students.