TNN, Pune Edition, 21th Aug 2008

Fee Panel To Hear Revision Pleas Tomorrow

Pune: Nineteen professional colleges in the state, including three from the city, have moved the Shikshan Shulka Samiti (fee fixation panel) against the final fee structure for 2007-08, approved by the panel recently.

The colleges have sought an apt increase in the sanctioned fees on the grounds that the panel did not appreciate certain valid factors such as depreciation, inflation and provision for pay revision, while working out the tuition and the development fees components for the final fee structure. The panel has scheduled a hearing of the appeals by these colleges at the state directorate of technical education (DTE) office, in Mumbai on August 22.

What makes the issue significant is the fee panel’s directive of July 4, asking all private unaided colleges in the higher and technical fields, to charge an ad hoc fee at 80 per cent of the final fee for 2007-08 while admitting students for academic year 2008-09. The ad hoc charge is to be treated as first instalment of fees for 2008-09.

The panel had asked all private unaided institutions to submit their fee revision proposals for 2008-09 by July 31 and is now in the process of scrutinising these proposals. Till then, the ad hoc arrangement will remain in force.

The three colleges from the city are: the Pune Vidyarthi Griha’s College of Engineering and Technology (PVG-CoET), which has a student intake of 360 at the first-year engineering (FE) level; the Pune Institute of Computer Technology (PICT), which has an intake of 330 seats; and the Allard Institute of Management Sciences.

For PVG-CoET, the panel approved Rs 40,550 per annum as the final fee for 2007-08 while the same for PICT was Rs 39,150 per annum and for Allard Institute Rs 48,000 per annum. The ad hoc charge for students admitted this year (2008-09) at these colleges works out to 80 per cent of this approved fee.
In case of any upward revision in this approved fee, following the upcoming hearing by the panel, the students may have to pay a bit more than the ad hoc charge they have paid so far.

Speaking to TOI on Tuesday, PVG-CoET director R.P. Joshi said that the college preferred an appeal as the approved fee for 2007-08 did not conform with the cost of education borne by the institution. “The appeals have been moved by only those colleges who feel that the approved fee is unacceptable to them,” he said. “We have sought an increase in the range of Rs 4,000 to Rs 5,000 over the approved fee,” Joshi said.

Principal of PICT, A.N. Gaikwad, confirmed that the college preferred an appeal as a measure of reconsideration. The institute has posted details of this appeal on its website (www.pict.edu) and has sought its fee to be revised to Rs 47,505 instead of Rs 39,150.

DTE warns colleges charging excess fees

Pune: Private unaided colleges found charging more than the prescribed fees for professional courses or accepting donations will lose approval to the merit list of students admitted by them for the academic year 2008-09.

A warning to this effect has been issued by the state director for technical education (DTE) through a circular released on August 18. The circular has been posted on the DTE’s official website (www.dte.org.in).

Speaking to TOI on Wednesday evening, DTE S.K. Mahajan said that the move had been spurred by complaints regarding a couple of unaided professional colleges in Mumbai charging fees in excess of the amount prescribed by the Supreme Court-assigned and the state governmentappointed Shikshan Shulka Samiti (fee fixation panel).

Mahajan said, “We wanted to make it clear to all unaided institutions that violation of fee norms won’t be tolerated.”

The circular applies to all those institutions offering degree, diploma and post-graduate courses in engineering, pharmacy, architecture, hotel management and catering technology, MBA, MMS and MCA courses, Mahajan said.