Proposed fees make education prohibitive

MUMBAI: What do two lakh rupees mean to an average household? It probably takes care of the entire family''s annual expenses. But soon, it may only cover your daughter''s annual medical college fees.
Thanks to a recent supreme court order granting considerable autonomy to private unaided colleges, many medical, management and engineering colleges have started working out new fee structures—decidedly higher than the subsidised rates currently charged from students.
Once these fee structures are introduced, higher education will virtually be out of reach of even middle-class families. The apex court order says that private educational institutions which "are not dependent on the government" can decide their own fees.
While institutions cannot indulge in profiteering, they can generate a "reasonable revenue surplus", the court said. Intepreting the order to their own benefit, a clutch of private engineering colleges have decided upon an annual fee of Rs 42,000, while medical colleges are toying with the idea of charging Rs 1.9 lakh.
Previously, private colleges followed two fee structures— the free and payment seats. In engineering colleges, the annual fee for free seats was around Rs 11,000 and for payment seats, it was Rs 50,000. In medical colleges, the free seats cost Rs 30,000 while the payment seats cost around Rs 6 lakhs.
"In the past middle-class students could get professional education at an affordable cost.Now, only the rich will have access to such courses," says a parent, whose daughter is in class XII. Moreover, there are not enough government-run institutions offering students higher education at a low cost, academics point out.
"With the government following a policy of slowly easing out all subsidies from higher education, economically weaker families will be left in the lurch," says Tapati Mukhopadhyay, member of Mumbai University''s senate. In fact, the private sector runs more professional colleges than the government.
In Maharashtra, of the 150-odd engineering colleges, only 12 receive government aid. Of the 15-odd management colleges in Mumbai, only three are state-run. There are an equal number of state-run amd private medical colleges—16 each. The principal of an unaided college admits that in such a situation, many middle-class students won''t be able to do an engineering or a medical course.
But, "When there are no funds from the government, managements don''t have any other option," he adds. Some college managements say that they have plans of subsidising education for economically weaker students. J.V.N. Rao, principal of St Francis Institute of Technology, Borivli (W), says his college is considering scholarships or financial assistance to students who can''t afford the high fees. The government, meanwhile, is looking for means to retain its control over the colleges even after the SC ruling. Since the judgment says the government can frame regulations to prevent profiteering, the Maharashtra government is planning to set up a regulatory body to approve the fee structures of private institutions.
Since many of these colleges have got land at concessional rates and other facilities from the government the latter is insisting on exercising a degree of control over them. To work out the details, the government will hold a meeting with private managements this week. Academics, meanwhile, are keeping their fingers crossed.
"Even when there was government control, private colleges were cutting corners in the facilities they provided and in the appointments of teachers," says Ms Mukhopadhyay. "Now that they have this freedom, there won''t be any control. I don''t think private institutions will bother about social commitments."
(This is the concluding part of a series on the fallout of a supreme court order on minority educational institutions. The first part appeared on February 15.)