UGC embarks on a student-friendly initiative

Updated on: Friday, March 20, 2009

The University Grants Commission has taken exception to certain educational institutions charging high fees for their admission forms and prospectus.

The University Grants Commission (UGC) has decided to ‘bring in some regulatory mechanism’ to check the trend on the part of some educational institutions to levy a stiff fee for their admission forms and prospectus.

The fee that these institutions charge can prove quite burdensome to at least a section of students and parents, particularly in these times of economic hardship. Also, the cost of the forms can add up to a tidy sum, considering that students often apply to several institutions to improve their prospects of getting admitted to the ‘right’ course in the ‘best’ institution of their choice.

A random scrutiny of the fee being charged by various institutions for the forms and prospectus revealed that these could often range from a modest Rs.100-Rs.150 (generally for non-professional courses) to Rs.700-Rs.1,000 in the case of professional courses. Some institutions charge more than Rs.1,000 for these, and a few have separate fees for registration and online tests, in which case the costs could exceed Rs.2,000.

“When a huge amount is charged as application fee, it does amount to a kind of exploitation of the students,” said an educational consultant. “The application fee for the Common Law Admission Test is as much as Rs.2,500 for general candidates and Rs.2,000 for those belonging to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes category,” he pointed out, suggesting that the Rs.700 being charged for applying for the Kerala Entrance Examinations for professional courses could itself be perhaps brought down.

However, it had to be borne in mind that the fee levied should not be seen as charges for stationery; it covered the total expenses incurred in conducting the entire selection process, which was a multi-tiered one in the case of business courses, said an expert. It would be ideal if the costs recovered from the students were on a no-profit no-loss basis, or maybe, subsidised to some extent.

The UGC observed recently in a communication to all universities that “some of the Deemed Universities, particularly those belonging to the private sector, are charging exorbitant” rates for the prospectus for admission to various courses. “Some universities insist on purchase of a separate admission form and prospectus for each course conducted by it even though the entrance test is common for all courses or a bunch of courses in a particular stream. This practice is not only exploitative in terms of exorbitant price of prospectus, but also an unwanted burden on the students who have to waste a lot of time and money in entrance examinations.” The UGC has asked all universities to provide information regarding the cost of prospectus. It had earlier taken a ‘serious view’ of the issue and was now initiating the process of having ‘wider consultation’ with the universities in this regard. They have been asked to ‘take remedial measures’, keep the prospectus price ‘at a minimum’ and also inform the UGC of their views in this regard.

However, it is not just some of new generation deemed universities alone that face this issue. A decision of the Punjab University to hike the price of its forms and prospectus had made headlines and led to student opposition a few weeks ago.

UGC embarks on a student-friendly initiative

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