Will the Shikshan Shulka Samiti reduce the fees of the professional colleges by 20%?
28 Sep, 2013The Supreme Court-mandated Shikshan Shulka Samiti (SSS) had ordered all the professional colleges of Maharashtra to upload the whole fee approval proposal on their respective websites before submitting it to the SSS. It was aimed at helping the parents and their wards who intended to take admission or who had taken admission to professional courses to verify necessary compliance. Students and parents wish to know how the fee structure was decided by colleges and what facilities are offered by the institutions in return of fee.
SSS is a fee fixation panel and decides the fee structure of the professional colleges. In keeping with the provisions of the RTI Act, SSS had embarked on to display the computation sheets of colleges whose fees were finalised by it on its website in January. In a meeting on April 25, the SSS made it obligatory for the professional colleges to put the whole proposal on the websites of the respective institution at the time of submission of proposal to SSS. As per the minutes of meeting, the heads of professional colleges were required to give an affidavit that the proposal has been put on the website of the college/institute before its submission to the Samiti. Further, the heads gave an undertaking that in case it is not done, fee may be reduced by 20 per cent.
Sajag Nagarik Manch, an advocacy group, has pointed out that many institutions have yet to put the fee proposal on its website and has implored upon the parents and their wards to visit the college website and report any non-compliance or false reporting to SSS for necessary action.