Gujarat begins process to regulate fee for non-tech courses in pvt institutes

Gujarat begins process to regulate fee for non-tech courses in pvt institutes Sources in the government said that the issue was flagged by the Social Justice & Empower-ment and Tribal Development departments that since there is Gujarat begins process to regulate fee for non-tech courses in pvt institutes FRC for non-technical courses in private institutes, there is a huge variation in fee charged for the same course in different universities.

“Questions were raised by the state government on how much scholarship to be given for private universities or colleges where the fee is not fixed by regulatory committees… In one private university, five programmes are controlled by the FRC, while other 10 are not. When verified, the variation in fees charged by two different universities for the same course ranged between Rs 25,000 and Rs 2.5 lakh,” said a senior government official.

The official added that since eligible students do not have to pay the fee that was reimbursed under the scholarship, private universities were coaxing them to take admissions in these non-technical programmes. Hence a system was needed to bring in parity, the official said.

“Private universities have been asked to submit a comprehensive fee structure of all non-technical programmes offered by them to the state education department. However, fixing fee for private universities should not be the case as on one hand, National Education Policy (NEP) talks about flexibility and autonomy and on the other hand the state government wants all control,” said vice-chancellor of a private university in Ahmedabad on condition of anonymity.

Education Minister Jitu Vaghani told The Indian Express, “We will sit and discuss and decide in the best benefit of students.”

Social Justice & Empowerment Department is providing centrally sponsored post-matric scholarship against the tuition fee for Scheduled Caste (SC) students. On similar lines, the Tribal Development Department is also providing scholarship to Scheduled Tribe (ST) students.

The scholarship is 60:40 where the majority portion is reimbursed by the Centre for SC students and for ST students, it is divided in the ratio 75:25 between the Centre and the state governments.

As per education department data, universities that take high fee include the Ahmedabad University, which charges around Rs 2.5 lakh for majority of programmes, including B Com honours, and Rs 4.75 lakh for its Global executive Master of Business Management in Pharmaceutical Management.

Nirma University in Ahmedabad charges Rs 2.53 lakh per semester for its BA LLB and B Com LLB and Rs 3.35 lakh for B Design, while Pandit Deendayal Energy University (PDEU) Gandhinagar charges around Rs 2.36 lakh for BA BBA (H), B Com (H) and B Sc (H) programmes.

The opposition has also been raising the issue of these scholarship schemes after it was stopped in 2020. Following repeated demands and announcement to stage a padyatra from Ahmedabad to Gandhinagar, by end of February, the BJP-led state government announced to continue with the scheme.

“We raised the issue in the budget session of state assembly in March and it was assured that the state government will continue with it… However, students have not been provided this so far,” said Congress MLA from Dasada in Surendranagar, Naushad Solanki.

As per the Central government’s guidelines for post-matric scholarships as on March 30, 2021, during academic years 2020-’21 to 2025-’26, fee fixed by rationalisation committees of fee fixation committees will be reimbursed.

“The state government had claimed that the institutes misuse the scholarship through ghost students. If that is the case, they should take action against them but the government will not act since most of these higher education institutes are run by them only,” added Solanki.

Earlier, the scholarship amount was directly given to colleges or universities to which the beneficiaries were enrolled but since 2020, the state government is depositing it in the students’ bank account. There are instances when parents withdraw the amount and the students are left with nothing.

As per the state government records, around 2,000 SC students take admission in private universities and colleges in non-FRC or non-technical courses. Thus, a total of 6,000 students (first till third year) are enrolled.

Similarly, in ST category, around 4,000 students take admission in non-FRC programmes in private institutes, making it 12,000 students studying from first to third year annually.