After completing the fee regulation exercise for this year, the Telangana Admission and Fee Regulatory Committee (TAFRC) wants to spare students from any increase this year and take up a fresh revision next year to be applicable for the remaining years of their academic course,
However, the committee is yet to submit its report to the government that will have its final say on the fee hike for all the professional courses, except medical courses. The TAFRC is headed by Justice Swaroop Reddy and has nine members, including TSCHE chairman, and experts from different fields.
All the colleges submitted their proposals for a fee hike, and initially, the committee agreed to a hike and fixed the fee in the band of ₹45,000 and ₹1.73 lakh per annum. The committee in its meetings felt that the exercise wasn’t complete and wants to postpone it to next year, taking colleges’ demands into consideration.
Some members suggested a blanket raise of 10% on the existing fee in all the colleges but the committee felt that it may lead to legal hassles with colleges challenging the process adopted.
“So we decided to suggest the government to continue the existing fee for this year taking into consideration the impact of COVID on the paying capacity of the parents,” a member told The Hindu.
Since the fee fixed this year was supposed to be applicable for the next three academic years starting from 2022-23, the TAFRC also felt that the colleges may lose out in the bargain. So the fee enhanced next year after a comprehensive exercise should be made applicable from 2023-24 academic year block for three years.
The practice is that once the students join a course with a certain fee, the structure remains for the remaining part of the course. “So we are suggesting that those joining this year should give some undertaking agreeing for a fee hike next year,” an official said.
