Mumbai: With Sir JJ School of Art and two of its adjoining institutes set to become a de nove deemed-to-be university, there could be a steep hike in tuition fees of all the courses.
The ‘de novo’ category is awarded to institutions devoted to innovations in teaching and research in unique and emerging areas of knowledge.
The task force appointed by the state government to comply with the University Grants Commission's (UGC) conditions for the JJ institutes to be transformed into a deemed university has suggested increasing the annual fees from Rs 7,500 to Rs 2 lakh for undergraduate (UG) courses and Rs 30,000 to Rs 3 lakh for post-graduation (PG) courses. That's an over 26-fold (2,500%) hike for UG programmes and 10-fold (900%) increase for PG courses.
The fee hike is among several other proposals mentioned in the task force's Detailed Project Report (DPR) that are aimed at shoring up revenue for the proposed university and achieve financial autonomy. The panel also talks about introducing a quota for Non-Resident Indians and Persons of Indian Origin (PIO) students with enhanced fees.
The state cabinet in June had cleared the decks to club the iconic Sir JJ School of Arts, Sir JJ School of Architecture and Sir JJ School of Applied Art into Sir JJ Institute of Art, Architecture and Design. The decision came after the task force submitted its report on how the state can comply with nine conditions laid out by UGC to the state government in its 2021 letter of intent. Submitting a revised DRP is one of the conditions put forth by the higher education regulator.
A member of the task force said that the fee projections were made by the panel to demonstrate to UGC that the new institute is equipped to meet its expenses. "The projected fee is at par with other de novo institutes in the country. The JJ institutes severely lack faculty, infrastructure and other facilities that must be put in place," he said, adding
However, another member of the panel claimed that the projected fee is a mere 'hypothetical' calculation made to balance the revenue and expenditure sheets. He added that the final decision about fees will only be taken after the formation of the board of governors of the section 8 (non-profit) company which will govern the proposed university.
"As has been made clear by the cabinet's decision, the company will be 100% owned by the government... The government needs to show its preparedness to meet the expenditure," he said.
An official from the state's Directorate of Art also said that it's unlikely that the fees will be increased to such an extent, given that the three institutes are run by the state government. "The figures mentioned in DPR are in fact an estimated expenditure government needs to make towards each student. The education in all government institutes is heavily subsidised," said the official.
Meanwhile, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has come out against any fee hike at the proposed university. Amol Matele, NCP's Maharashtra state spokesperson has submitted a letter to the Higher and Technical Education Minister Chandrakant Patil, asking him to come clean on the issue. "A number of bright but poor students seek admission to these students to get quality education. If there's a massive increase in fees, these students will be deprived of education," said Matele.
