The state government on Monday decided to fix a cap on the fees it will reimburse to engineering, MBA and MCA colleges from this academic year. Beneficiaries of the fee reimbursement scheme will, thus, have to pay the extra amount after the fees are hiked.
The government has, however, assured to pay the entire fees for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes students with financial assistance from the Centre. This, on the other hand, leaves students of the Backward Classes (BC) and the Economically Backward Classes (EBC) in a lurch.
It was also decided to extend the scheme to students next year only if they passed in 50 per cent of the total subjects in their First Year exams. Thus, from now on, the government will only reimburse the existing fees of Rs 31,000 per annum for engineering students and Rs 27,000 for MBA/MCA students.
Students in dark over fee regime
The Group of Ministers and the expert committee further messed up the Eamcet engineering counselling on Monday by declaring that the counselling schedule would be announced on August 8 without fixing the fee structure.
This means students will have to opt for engineering seats in colleges during counselling without actually knowing how much fees they will have to pay. This will be a big problem for students and parents as the fees are expected to increase to anywhere between Rs 50,200 and Rs 1.5 lakh per annum from the existing Rs 31,000 and they will have to prepare to bear the additional fee burden without actually knowing how much it will be.
The AFRC is expected to take three months to revise the fees based on the Supreme Court’s orders. Ironically, meritorious students who secured top ranks in Eamcet will be the worst affected. These students will get seats in top colleges in which the fees are expected to be increased to Rs 1 lakh to Rs 1.5 lakh. Students who are eligible for the fee reimbursement scheme, meanwhile, will have to pay the hike amount from their own pockets as the government will not reimburse more than the existing fee of Rs 31,000.
These students, who comprise about 80 per cent of the total admitted students, will also be unaware about the amount they need to pay after the fee revision during counselling. “Over 240 colleges have submitted financial statements and undertakings. Of them, 133 have submitted all the details and the rest have submitted insufficient details. The remaining 450 colleges have not submitted any details. We cannot revise the fees based on this. The government will constitute task forces to inspect the colleges to ascertain whether the information furnished by them was correct. Based on this, the AFRC will revise the fees,” said minister for social welfare Pithani Satyanarayana. The government has also directed colleges to conduct management quota admissions online to ensu-re merit and transparency.