Government effects steep hike in PU fees

Under the revised fee structure, the annual tuition fee in government PU colleges will be Rs 420, and Rs 840 in private PU colleges. The application fee and registration fee will be Rs 21 each. The other fees are: laboratory fee (Rs 280), admission fee (Rs 30), late admission fee (Rs 420), special late admission fee (Rs 1,000), sports fee (Rs 70), cultural activities fee (Rs 56) and library fee (Rs100). Besides, the students' and teacher' welfare fees, toilet maintenance, and electricity and water fees will be Rs 21 each.

The examination fee for 1st PU course is Rs 140 and for 2nd PUC, it is Rs 252. The re-totalling of marks’ fee is Rs 280, up from Rs 200; fee for photocopy of an answer script Rs 420, up from Rs 300; fee for revaluation of each answer script Rs 1,050, up from Rs 750; and fee for providing duplicate marks card under tatkal scheme (duplicate marks card issued the same day) Rs 5,000.

To start a new private PU college, the application fee is now Rs 30,000, while the registration fee is Rs 60,000. To renew recognition for private colleges, the revised fee is Rs 12,000.

Marginal hike

Terming the fee hike as “marginal” PU Director, Shankarnarayan stated that the increase was the need of the hour. “The fee hike is a regular process. but as the hike was done last in 2004, an increase of 35 percent will seem rather large,” he said.

The Director was hopeful that the hike will not snowball into a controversy as most Below Poverty Line (BPL) students will be receiving free education. “With so many sops provided by the Government, it is not likely to hamper the students enrollment,” he said.

The fee hike will be noticed in all Government and Government aided colleges across all components. For example, the tuition fee in colleges has now gone up from Rs 300 to Rs 420. Likewise, even library charges and laboratory charges will also be increased in the same ration, perhaps, adding more burden on the fee of a student entering the PUC colleges.