Indore: Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya (DAVV), which has been empowered by the state government to regulate fees of colleges under its wings, is shying away from exercising the authority fearing that it would strip up the hornets’ nest. A proof to it is that no meeting of fee regulatory committee, which was constituted by the university in the last week of January, has taken place despite passing off two-hand-a-half-month ago.
Forget meeting of regulatory committee, the university has not even sought information on existing fee structures from colleges so that the same could be rationalised before admission process commence. Less than one month is left to start admission process. Before that the colleges should provide fee structures to Department of Higher Education so that students could know at the time of centralised online counselling about the fee structures of colleges.
Accepting a long pending demand of students, the state government three month ago had conferred on the universities the right to regulate fee structures of courses run by private colleges in the state. The government has asked the state universities to regulate fees charged by colleges affiliated to them. The move came following an order by coordination committee – the apex body of higher education in the state.
Following orders from the DHE, the university had immediately constituted a jumbo fee regulatory committee comprises of Prof Anil Kumar (chairman), Prof Ashok Sharma, Prof SP Singh, Sumant Katiyal, finance controller Dilip Verma, CA Anil Bhandari, deputy registrar Ajay Verma and deputy registrar (administration).
The committee was directed to go through the existing fee structures of colleges, course-wise, and come up with a rationalised fee structure which will be uniform to a large extent. The new structures were to be implemented from session 2018-19. But after the committee was constituted, the issue was put in cold storage apparently following pressure mounted by the college administrations.
Huge difference in fee structures
Currently, there is a huge difference in fee structures of similar courses in different colleges. For instance, fee of BBA course in a college is Rs 10,000 while it is about Rs 1 lakh in another college. The regulatory committee is supposed to address this disparity and reduce fees of the colleges which are charging heavily.
At present, fees structures of courses including MBBS, MBA, BE, BEd, and MEd are regulated by Admission and Fee Regulatory Commission (AFRC), office of which is located at Bhopal. The university would decide fees of courses which are not regulated by AFRC. The courses, which will come under the ambit of university, include BA, BSC, BCom, MCom, LLB, BA-LLB, BBA, BSc and BCA among others.
Let govt decide guidelines: VC
While the government has given it the authority, the DAVV is looking back at the government for deciding guidelines for fee fixation. “Let the government decide guidelines for fee fixation at colleges. If the government decides guidelines and direct us to implement the same, we will do the needful,” said vice chancellor Dr Narendra Dhakad even as the letter sent by DHE clearly says that the sole right of finalising parameters for fee fixation will remain with the university.