Pvt colleges eye reimbursement hike

State government has initially proposed a fee of Rs 1,940 for junior Intermediate courses and Rs 1,760 for senior Intermediate. But there was widespread opposition to this structure and some colleges have approached court. The High Court too directed the government to adopt a rational approach with regard to hike in fee structure and accordingly, government has appointed a five-member officers’ committee. The panel has recommended that a fee ranging from Rs 4,500- 6,000 can be collected from students in private colleges depending on their location and infrastructure.

Colleges, in an attempt to get more students, have been prevailing on the government to implement the recommendations as well as enhancing the reimbursement cap.

When the fee was less than Rs 2,000, government paid back the fee of all students belonging to disadvantaged sections.

Now, if the fee is hiked, officials are apprehensive that the reimbursement bill coupled with post metric scholarship would go up enormously. They have now put a condition: We will endorse the recommended fee but there will not be any hike in reimbursement.

This was not acceptable to managements of colleges.

Their plan is: If government pays Rs 5,000 per student per annum in addition to Rs 3,000 towards post metric scholarship, they can get a sum of Rs 8,000. Out of this, if they dole out Rs 2,000 back to students for joining in their institution, they can still have a sum of Rs 6,000 per student per annum. In addition to this, they can fleece in the name of projects, lab, library and other expenses.

More than 70 per cent of private colleges have been thriving on reimbursement amount in the State. Nearly nine lakh students take admission in Intermediate courses annually and more than six lakh have been joining only in private colleges. The corporate and chain colleges have been collecting a fee ranging from Rs 35,000 to Rs 3 lakh. They have decided to hike the fee by nearly 25- 30 per cent from 2014-15.

“If the government accedes to the demand of private colleges, it would be a death-knell for government junior colleges as well as the recently-launched Model Schools as students would naturally prefer corporate and other private colleges first and join in government institutions only as a last option. The College and Model School buildings will turn into paddy godowns of rural ryots,” Dr P Madhusudhan Reddy, General Secretary of Government Junior College Lecturers Association warned.

Government is now in a fix on how to go about. Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy is not in favour of increasing the cap of reimbursement at all, according to sources.