Academicians have demanded the State government to streamline the fee structure in self-financing and aided colleges across the State.

In Tamil Nadu, there are 163 government colleges, of which 132 are arts and science colleges, while the remaining are B.Ed., Oriental, College of Arts, and fine arts colleges. Generally, all private colleges, including self-financing colleges, are governed under the Tamil Nadu Private Colleges Regulations (TNPCR) Act, 1976.

Former president of the Association of University Teachers (AUT) Tamil Nadu, K. Pandiyan, stated that the TNPCR Act became archaic as 50 years have lapsed since its enactment. The fact that there is no mention of colleges under the self-financing stream in the Act proves that the concept of self-financing in education was anathema when the Act was enacted.

“There has been a mushrooming of such institutions in the last three decades, outnumbering the government and government-aided institutions in Tamil Nadu,” he added.

Mr. Pandiyan said any act needs rules for its effective operation. Rule 9(5) of the TNPCR Act says the secretary of the college shall not interfere in the internal administration of the college, such as admission, examination, promotion of students, and other academic matters, as also the administration of special fee funds, which shall be made the exclusive responsibility of the principal.

“But almost all government-aided colleges have the college secretary’s office within the campus and the secretary’s interference is imminent in the day-to-day activities, including the fixation of alleged excess fees,” he said.

Stating that the admission guidelines, issued annually by the government in the form of a G.O., have become redundant, Mr. Pandiyan said that many of its provisions have been contemptuously violated, against which the director/RJDCEs inherently fail to initiate any punitive action. “It becomes imperative that the above act needs a holistic review to amend the provisions to suit the present times,” Mr. Pandiyan added.

“With regard to the fees to be collected, the absence of a charter of course-wise fees for aided/self-financing courses has resulted in private colleges being dictatorial in the collection of exorbitant fees for government-aided courses, not to mention the self-financing courses. The government issued the G.O. No. 265, dated May 13, 1997, and since then there has been no further guidance on the fees,” he said.

Mr. Pandiyan also stated that two fee fixation committees had been constituted and nothing concrete has come out so far. “Unless the fee structures are streamlined, the edifice of higher education will be demolished,” he added.