New fee norms for 157 engineering colleges

Metro India News | Hyderabad 

The Telangana government has delivered a major surprise to engineering colleges across the state. Fees for private engineering colleges will now be strictly regulated, taking into account academic standards, available facilities, faculty strength, laboratories, and other infrastructure. Some colleges will see reductions, while a few may face fee increases.

Official orders are expected to be released within the next one or two days, and the new fees will apply immediately for the 2025–2027 academic years. Until these orders are released, students continue to pay the old fees for the current academic year.

There are 157 engineering colleges in Telangana. The government has decided that 70 colleges will continue charging their existing fees unchanged until 2027. Another 19 colleges will see slight reductions in their fees based on the previous block period. The remaining 63 colleges, however, will witness fee hikes.

The Telangana Admission and Fee Regulatory Committee (TAFRC) had earlier submitted recommendations to the government, calculating fees based on private college income and expenditure, academic standards, facilities, infrastructure, laboratories, and faculty. The government, however, felt that the recommended hikes were excessive and instructed TAFRC to revise fees in line with actual academic and facility standards.

During the start of the current academic year, some college managements approached the courts over fee finalization, and the courts directed the government to finalize the fees. In response, TAFRC submitted a revised report, following which the government decided to reduce fees for roughly half of the colleges while increasing fees in some others. Official government orders (GOs) are yet to be released, but even before that, some colleges that saw fee reductions may challenge the decision in court.

Breakdown of fees across colleges shows: 28 colleges charge between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 1.5 lakh; seven colleges charge above Rs 1.5 lakh; 64 colleges fall in the Rs 50,000–Rs 1 lakh range; 40 colleges charge between Rs 75,000 and Rs 1 lakh; and 18 colleges have fees below Rs 50,000. Minor increases under Rs 10,000 were observed in 35 colleges. A few colleges have reportedly reduced fees even further.

Prominent colleges with fees above Rs 1 lakh include CBIT, Vasavi, MGIT, CVR, Narayanamma (Rs 1.62 lakh), Gokaraju Ganga Raju, VNR (Rs 1.59 lakh), BVRIT, Vardhaman (Rs 1.40 lakh), SR, MVSR, Sreenidhi (Rs 1.29 lakh), Gurunanak, and Vignan (Rs 1.23 lakh).