PU college fees likely to be hiked from upcoming academic year

BENGALURU: After hiking the fees for degree courses, the government is now preparing to revise fees for pre-university courses also. A proposal in this regard has been sent by the PU Board to the government in this regard.

The board has proposed a hike in 40 different types of fees including tuition fee, examination fee, marks card fee and new college fee. While Primary and Secondary Education Minister Madhu Bangarappa has approved the revision, a decision from Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is awaited. If it comes through, the fees will be revised from the academic year 2024-25 itself.

The reasons being cited is that there has been no fee revision from 2018 and it has become necessary to do so. Also, colleges will get more funds for development and increase their financial strength. Since the focus is on the Congress guarantee schemes, colleges are unlikely to get any grants and hiking the fees will make funds available, it is said.

In 2018, the government had approved revising the fees from 30 per cent up to 60 per cent. But after the BJP came to power in 2019, the government did not allow any hike in fees. Instead, the government itself funded the fees of girl students. If the present proposal is accepted, the fees may be increased anywhere between 25-30 per cent, sources said.

In 2018, the registration fee was increased from Rs 25 to Rs 35, tuition fee from Rs 504 to Rs 670, for duplicate marks cards from Rs 1,200 to Rs 1,600 and revaluation fee from Rs 1,260 to Rs 1,650.