A number of prominent private engineering colleges in Tamil Nadu have approached the fee fixation panel with requests to raise the annual fee for government quota seats from Rs 32,500 to around Rs 1,00,000.
Highly placed sources in the Committee on Fixation of Fee for Self-financing Professional Colleges, headed by Justice N V Balasubramanian, said a decision would be taken before the start of the engineering counselling, preferably by the first week of July.
According to sources, of the 540 odd colleges currently part of the single-window counselling pool, more than 450 have petitioned the committee for revision of the fee. Those who were satisfied with the current fee structure were institutions that are “smaller in size with less reputation,” they added.
While some have asked for a revision up to Rs 1 lakh per student per year, sources said that a number of factors would be looked into before taking a decision. “We have to look at the audited revenue and expenditure statement of these colleges. The revision will be made only based on those expenses which we would deem fit for the students to bear,” a senior official said.
For example, some colleges have the habit of citing large loans they had taken as part of the expenses to be transferred as burden on the students. Such arguments will not be considered.
Also, in what could be termed as bizarre instances, the committee has received petitions from students and parents who have themselves termed the existing fee structure as “too low” and wanted a change.
“We do not know if such petitions are instigated by the colleges themselves. But we will take an informed decision,” a source said.
Now that the petitions have been received, the next step of the committee, which has already met three times on the issue, would be to meet the representatives of the colleges to hear their versions.