Maharashtra: State Mandates Higher Education Institutes To Publicly Disclose Information On Fees, Faculty & Facilities Before Admissions

Higher education institutes in the state, including private and deemed universities, will now have to publicly disclose information about their fees, teachers, available facilities and other such information on their website at least 60 days before their admissions.

On Thursday, the state government issued the instructions for mandatory disclosure in line with the University Grants Commission (Students Grievance Redressal) Rules 2023, issued in April last year. The move is aimed at bringing transparency in the education system and is part of the ‘light but tight’ regulatory framework envisaged under the National Education Policy 2020.

The institutes are required to provide a list of all courses along with the broad outlines of the syllabus, the number of seats approved for each of the academic programmes, the admission process as well as each component of fees deposits and other charges. They must also display details of their teaching faculty including their educational qualification if they are regular appointees or guest teachers. The information brochure also has to include physical and academic infrastructure and other facilities such as hostel accommodation.

The instructions come weeks after UGC pulled up universities across the country, including 17 from Maharashtra, for failing to appoint ombudspersons to address students’ complaints. Most public universities in the state found a mention in the default list except the University of Mumbai (MU) and Savitribai Phule Pune University.

“I firmly believe that this move will bring about transparency. Colleges will be forced to give accurate and correct data in the public domain. The expectation would be that no fake or misleading data is given by the colleges,” said Gopal Kalkoti, a former principal.