MUMBAI: The Fee Regulating Authority, which decides the tuition of several professional courses, will now also set the charges for agriculture colleges across Maharashtra.

The decision was taken after agriculture colleges came under the ambit of Maharashtra’s unaided private professional educational institution rules. Earlier, the Maharashtra Council of Agriculture Education and Research (MCAER) used to set the fees of its colleges. While fees across the 189 agriculture colleges for 2018-19 will remain unchanged from 2017-18, the tuition will change from next year.

Harihar Kausadikar, director (education), MCAER said, “The handover has taken place but the change will be effective from next year as colleges have been asked to draw up their balance sheets and submit their financial records, on the basis of which the fees will be set. Institutes need to submit the details by October.”

The MCAER currently sets fees for all the 156 private colleges and 33 aided and government colleges. From B.Sc. courses in forestry to horticulture, agriculture and community service, these four-year-long programmes admit students after Class XII.

Then there are technology courses too: BTech in agriculture engineering, food technology and biotechnology, which require Class XII graduates to take an entrance exam. Across the state, there are a total of 15,227 seats and all courses go houseful.

Current fees range from Rs 40,000 in aided institutes to Rs 1.95 lakh in non-grant colleges. A principal said, “This is one professional course where there is a huge demand from students. But a lot of reform is also needed in this space. For the past three years, there has been no fee revision. Also, the norms for starting and running the colleges need a review.”

Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/