Higher grades higher fees in AP Engg colleges

The Andhra government is going to implement a new policy with regard to engineering colleges in the state. According to reports grades will decide the fee structure in engineering colleges in Andhra Pradesh from this year. As per the new policy, colleges with higher ‘grades’ will command a higher fee than the colleges with poor grades.

Maharashtra also follows a similar policy, where fee structure is fixed according to the quality of faculty, infrastructure and other facilities.The minister for Andhra Pradesh higher and technical education, Mr Damodara Rajanarasimha, said that the policy of “grading the colleges” will be implemented soon inspite of resistance from college managements."The committee appointed by the Andhra government is already grading the colleges and the committee is going to submit the report within two weeks.” he said.

The Andhra government has decided to grade the engineering colleges as A, B, C and D from the top, based on the quality of faculty, infrastructure and facilities they offer, and it plans to link the fee structure with the grades.With a majority of the engineering colleges being very poor, the Andhra government feels that linking the fee structure with the grades will make errant college managements improve their standards.

Andhra Pradesh has the highest number of engineering colleges in the country (707) with 2.85 lakh seats to offer.However, there are hardly 50 to 60 colleges in the state that can maintain standards as prescribed by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).