Association demands govt to check prices of college applications

“Though the government has fixed the rate of application forms, even government aided colleges flout the rules and sell them for exorbitant rates,” said R Murali, State Coordinator of Save Higher Education Movement.

“Government has fixed Rs 48 as the application fee for undergraduate courses and Rs 58 for postgraduate courses in government aided arts and science colleges. However, each application is sold between Rs 250 and Rs 500, violating the rules,” said Murali.

According to government rules, one application is sufficient to apply for all the courses in a college but separate application is sold for each course. Due to this, students are made to incur a heavy expense even before joining in the colleges, he further added.

Similarly, colleges should not collect any application fee from students belonging to Dailt community. But the rules are floated and application fee is collected from them, too.

Another major problem faced by the students is the admission fee. Government had kept the admission fee at the bare minimum with the intention to encourage more students to pursue higher education. But the colleges collect up to Rs 15,000, citing various reasons. Parents also pay the fees without questioning the college administration, said Murali.

He demanded the State government to take strict action against colleges collecting extra amount for applications and also as admission fee from students.