Engineering tuition fee set to skyrocket as private colleges in Telangana propose steep hikes

Managements submitted proposals to the Telangana Admission and Fee Regulatory Committee seeking fee hikes ranging between 50% and 100% for the next three-year block period commencing academic year 2025-26

Hyderabad: Several top private engineering colleges in the State have proposed steep fee hikes, which could cost aspiring engineers their arm and a leg. The managements submitted proposals to the Telangana Admission and Fee Regulatory Committee (TAFRC) seeking fee hikes ranging between 50 per cent and 100 per cent for the next three-year block period commencing academic year 2025-26.

The CBIT has put forward to hike its fee from Rs 1.65 lakh to Rs 2.94 lakh per annum — nearly double the existing tuition fee. This is the highest fee that has been proposed by a private engineering college in the State. Another institution, VNR VJIET, proposed a hike from Rs 1.35 lakh to Rs 2.84 lakh per annum, which is an over 100 per cent surge.

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Going by the proposals of the top 15 private engineering colleges, five colleges sought more than Rs 2 lakh as tuition fee and the remaining institutions proposed a fee more than Rs 1.50 lakh per annum. Overall, around 60 colleges sought a fee between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 2 lakh. Currently, 35 colleges have a fee of Rs 1 lakh and above.

The engineering colleges submitted these proposals in response to a notification issued by the TAFRC, which revises fee of professional colleges once in three years with the last such revision being done in 2022-23.

According to sources, the colleges are unlikely to get the hike they sought. “They might get an increase of 5-10 per cent. The personal hearings for fee fixation are scheduled from February 25 and schedule will be issued on Friday,” sources said.

This time, a total of 157 colleges applied as against 176 in the block period 2022-25. Institutions that did not apply or failed to submit required documents and statements are barred from collecting any fee. Such colleges are not allowed to admit students for the forthcoming academic year.

The fee is revised based on colleges’ final audited statements of income and expenditure, and balance sheets and developmental needs for the immediately preceding years, particulars of expenditure incurred on salaries and infrastructure among others.