Engineering aspirants will know the fee structure of all the colleges before taking admission as officials have indicated to the government that admissions without revealing the fee structure will invite legal problems and further delays.
“It is not just the legal aspect, but it also unfair to ask students to choose colleges without actually knowing the fee details,” an official said. The government is going to consider the issue at a meeting scheduled for tomorrow when guidelines for finalising the notification are decided.
“The notification is likely to be issued in three or four days and not on Wednesday as many believe,” he said. Officials made it clear that the fee structure of the 133 colleges that moved the Supreme Court is ready with the Admission and Fee Regulation Committee (AFRC) and that will not be the reason for any delay.
“Fee has been finalised for all these colleges based on the financial documents submitted by them. We can send it to the government anytime it wants,” the official said. The fee structure for the remaining colleges has to be fixed and this would be discussed on Wednesday.
Officials are confident that the remaining colleges would not insist on charging more than the existing fee in the present circumstances where nearly 1.5 lakh seats are going vacant. Any hike in the fee would reflect directly on the admissions, they point out.
College managements have also been indicating that they were ready to accept a government’s proposal of minimal fee increase. In fact, they are divided over the hike with the top and urban colleges preferring a substantial hike and the remaining ones, a minimal fee hike.
The government too might not go for any steep rise as it had already attracted severe criticism on capping the fee reimbursement. Any additional hike would only compound problems and the government would want to ‘exploit’ the differences from within the colleges to its advantage.
That the colleges are being “threatened” with inspections is an indication of the intent.
