After two decades of offering their courses in ₹8,500, Anna University has finally revised its fee structure for the courses that it offers. The students who wish to continue their education from Anna University from the next academic year will be required to pay a tuition fee of ₹20,000. The step has been taken by the administration of the University after they had been facing a shortage of funds.
The Registrar of Anna University, J Kumar, has stated that even though the increase in the amount of the fee has been steep, ₹20,000 is still on the lower end of the fees in comparison to some of the premier engineering institutes of the country. He further added that despite receiving grants from the centre, the central government institutions had been raising their fee every five years so as to combat the costs of inflation.
The Tamil Nadu government provided salary grant to the university till 2012-13 academic year. The government had stopped from funding the college by mentioning the financial status of the University, along with the external financial sources. The University has taken various steps to receive the salary grant from the government once again. Nonetheless, the department of higher education has decided to support Anna University.
Officials from Anna University have stated that they need extra financial support for bridging the gap in the expenditure of electricity, water, lab facilities as well as security. They added, the funds will help them introduce new courses in their campuses at Coimbatore, Tirunelveli and Madurai.
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Vice-Chancellor M K Surappa has stated that Anna University has not increased its fees for the last 20 years. Thus, it was imminent that this change had to come. He further added that hike in the fees of the courses is pretty much inevitable. He further stated that other premier engineering colleges such as the Indian Institutes of Technology currently ask a fee of 1 lakh when a few years ago, they asked ₹25,000.
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M K Surappa also added that the University has implemented a two pay commission during its existence. The increase in the fees of the courses will help them in paying the salaries to its faculty as well as add and improve the equipment and the infrastructure of the University.