New Delhi: The education ministry has accepted the All India Council for Technical Education’s (AICTE) recommendation of having a minimum annual fee at nearly Rs 68,000 for an engineering course in India, ThePrint has learnt.
As reported by ThePrint last month, suggestions on fixing a limit for minimum and maximum fee were given as part of a panel report by the AICTE. The council has now written to all state and union territory governments for its implementation.
According to the panel report, a copy of which has been seen by ThePrint, the minimum annual fee for a three-year diploma course in engineering is Rs 67,900, while the maximum annual fee is Rs 1,40,900. For a four-year degree programme in engineering, the minimum fee has been fixed at Rs 79,600 per annum and the maximum has been capped at Rs 1,89,800.
For a post graduate programme in engineering, the fee range has been capped at Rs 1,41,200 to Rs 3,04,000. For a PG programme in management, the minimum and maximum range have been fixed at Rs 85,000 and Rs 1,95,200 respectively.
The panel has suggested minimum and maximum fees for various technical institutes, including engineering and technology, management, applied arts and crafts, planning and MCA.
Confirming the development, Member Secretary of AICTE, Rajive Kumar, told ThePrint, “The panel report was accepted by the ministry early this week and we have already written to state and union territories to start implementing the fee structure.”
“It is now up to the states to review the suggestions and decide a fee structure accordingly, since each state also has its own fee review committee,” he added.
Minimum fee fixed for first time
For the panel report, AICTE had received comments from Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh.
AICTE had constituted a committee under the chairmanship of Justice Srikrishna, a former Supreme Court judge, to review existing fee structure and fix norms as well as guidelines for charging tuition and other costs. The committee had submitted its report in August 2021. The same was circulated to different states and union territories for their views.
After receiving the views of states and UTs, and reviewing all aspects, the report was finally submitted to the Ministry of Education.
While the maximum fee slab was fixed once earlier, this is the first time that suggestions for a minimum fee had been given.
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