The government has initiated action against 25 colleges for charging tuition fees in excess of what has been prescribed, Higher Education Minister P. Palaniappan told the Assembly on Tuesday.
Moving the demands for grants for the department, he said that the committee constituted to look into complaints of collection of capitation fee and tuition fee higher than what had been prescribed by the fee fixation committee, conducted enquiries with 74 colleges. Based on the complaints, action was initiated against 25 colleges.
Higher Education Department officials said that the committee submitted its report on 50 colleges, based on which show-cause notice were issued. There were no records for the collection of capitation fee in most of the complaints received and the committee focussed mainly on the collection of excess tuition fee and separate fees for extra-curricular activities and value-added courses, for which some colleges had issued receipts.
The government's action has created awareness and instilled confidence among students, parents and public, the Minister said.
After the inspection, all colleges had refunded Rs.20,000 to first generation students. They were made to give the amount in cheque and not cash.
Many colleges have submitted evidence of refund and a decision on the next course of action will be taken by the co-ordination committee meeting presided over by the Higher Education Minister, officials said.
Fee for B.Ed courses
From this year, the Justice (retd) N.V. Balasubramanian Committee, which fixed fees for professional courses such as B.E, B.Tech and P.G. courses such as MBA, MCA, will fix the fee for colleges offering B.Ed courses, the Minister said. The government had allotted Rs.477.97 crore this fiscal for exemption of tuition fee for about 1.56 lakh first generation graduate students admitted through single window counselling in 2011-12 with the government spending Rs.298.90 crore. This scheme had been extended to the eligible wards of Sri Lankan refugees living in various camps.
