Technical institutions to hike 5% fees from ’20-21

Technical Educations in Chhattisgarh are all set to witness a significant fee hike from next academic session of 2020-21. Although 60 per cent of engineering seats under Chhattisgarh Swami Vivekananda Technical University (CSVTU) are lying vacant, Directorate of Technical Education (DTE) Chhattisgarh has decided to increase 5% hike in fees on the request of private engineering colleges association as well as CSVTU.

 

According to sources, several colleges want to improve the quality of technical labs and it would be possible only by hiking fees. The Higher Education Department, through an order issued a few months ago, has accorded sanction to increase the fees, including tuition fees, hostel fees, examination fees, university fees, etc. of all students, including professional courses, studying in government, aided and government-controlled self-financing institutions and grant-in-aid agencies under the control of the Technical Education Department (Directorate) by 5% this year and thereafter in every alternate year’.

 

As per sources of DTE Chhattisgarh, the decision was taken after receiving requests of both private engineering colleges as well as authorities of CSVTU Bhilai regarding it. In fact, many private engineering colleges and their managements informed that fees of engineering education are one of the cheapest amongst all states in Chhattisgarh.

Higher Education Department officials maintained that the hike was reasonable, as the last revision in the fee structure for Bachelor of Engineering (BE) courses had been implemented some four years ago. Besides, many self-financing colleges currently collected fees that were much lower than the agreed fee limits for management quota seats.

 

In this regard, Dr. MK Verma, Vice Chancellor of CSVTU said ‘for years, engineering colleges in Chhattisgarh have been charging much lower than those in other States. Considering the lower intake and the need for facility upgrade, the hike is within reasonable limits,’ he added, pointing out that the committee intervened in cases when college managements charged exorbitant fees that were beyond the agreed fee limits. Notably, not all stakeholders were in favour of the proposed hike. Dr. PB Deshmukh Technical Director of engineering colleges and technical educationist stated that any further increase in the tuition fees would adversely affect their prospects of filling up seats. But owing to fewer fees, quality of education has not been improved much in the state as compared to other states. So in this case, it is necessary to implement it from next academic session.

 

At present, Chhattisgarh has 50 engineering colleges in 10 districts of the state and of them maximum 42 are affiliated to CSVTU while 5 are of private universities in the state and three are of central institutions including IIT Bhilai and NIT Raipur. In 2015, there were 52 engineering colleges under CSVTU but owing to poor enrolment and low standard of technical education and its facilities, 10 colleges were shut down in last three years. Dr. KK Verma, Registrar of CSVTU asserted that it is true that over 60% engineering seats are lying vacant but it is also need to improve the quality so that students would not migrate to other states and it would be possible by rising fees.