Move to hike engineering fees delayed as committee remains headless

The Tamil Nadu government had announced the implementation of the Seventh Central Pay Commission notified by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) with immediate effect. The pay benefits will extend to all academic staff in government and government-aided engineering and polytechnic colleges in the State.

The AICTE also recommended fee hike at technical institutions proportionate to the pay scale increase for the faculty so as to not push colleges into a financial crunch while implementing the Pay Commission’srecommendations.

However, the Directorate of Technical Education (DoTE), which monitors all technical institutions in the State, could not immediately act on a new fee structure for students, as retired Justice NV Balasubramanian, who was appointed chairman of the committee for fixation of fee for self-financing colleges, died last November.

A senior official from DoTE said that the fee structure had been revised last year, and it has to be revised once again after the AICTE had given nod for salary hike to the staff of both engineering and polytechnic colleges.

Stating that the revised fee structure should be prepared well before the commencement of the coming academic year (2020-21), the official said the government was in the process of appointing a new chairperson for the fees fixation committee. The fees would be restructured for both accredited and non-accredited courses, and would be proportionate to the salary hike for staff in the institutions, he added.

“Once the chairperson is appointed, the committee members will work out a detailed fee structure that would not affect the students,” the official said, adding that once the new fee structure has been fixed, all colleges would be instructed not to collect more than the stipulated amount.

There are nearly 500 engineering colleges and an equal number of polytechnic institutions functioning in the State, where about two lakh students are studying.