Bhubaneswar: The state higher education department has recently directed the principals of Odisha-colleges both government and government-aided, to collect equal fees for their regular courses.
At present, there are colleges in Odisha that collect fees at two different phases. Some colleges have even devised a dual fee structure for regular subjects like English, Political science and Physics.
This entails, these colleges follow government regulations and collect admission fees accordingly. However, there are also self-financing seats for collecting extra funds from students in the guise of admission fees.
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Principals of Odisha based Colleges speak up
As per, Binod Kumar Samantaray, ex-principal, Ekarma College Bhubaneswar, it is a sound measure to curb discrimination when it comes to paying admission fees and additional charges.
He added, “According to the dual fee structure, one student will pay a nominal fee and another one will pay a high amount for the same course. It is not good that they will seat together in the same class by paying different fees.”
On this aspect, Gopal Halder, Principal, Vikram Dev Autonomous College, asserted that his college has separate allotments of regular and self-financing seats which are never intermixed.
He further said, “We collect an equal fee for regular courses in our institution. We also run purely self-financing courses. The government has taken a good step to stop discrimination among students regarding different fees for the same course.”
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Official Declaration by Odisha State Higher Education Department
An official communication by the higher education department declared colleges should ensure seats are not mixed to avoid discrimination among students. This differential fee structure to be discontinued, in effect from the forthcoming academic year.
Earlier to this, Saswat Mishra, Secretary, Higher Education Department, Government of Odisha, had written to all the principals of government and government-aided colleges. The letter was written to stop this practice.
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The letter reads, "Government has decided that there should not be any differential fee structure for the seats in a regular subject. But if the subject is entirely self-financing in nature then that may continue in self-financing mode.”
