Fee burden no deterrent to pursuing the engineering dream
Parents prefer sending their wards to private engineering colleges despite a fee hike of 20%, due to their infrastructure facilities and job placements
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CHENNAI: College admissions are a happy time for parents, as the end result of seeing your child pursue a college degree is nothing short of remarkable. However, it’s also a time fraught with worry and anxiety, which is more so this year as private universities and institutions are likely to increase the fee structure for various courses especially in technical programmes.
Engineering colleges in TN that are not affiliated to Anna University are seeking to increase the fees by about 20% for the 2025-2026 academic year.
Though the Class 12 board exam results will only be released in June, several parents have started preparing for admissions. S Geetha Kumari (45), a homemaker in the city, is a worried mother of a young man, who wants to pursue BTech Computer Science in a reputed institute. “Though I’m trying to book a seat in a private university at the outskirts of Chennai, I heard fees could be increased this year. I’m not sure if I can afford it but I’m also worried about my son’s higher education dream,” she said.
Defending her choice of a private college to government engineering colleges, Geetha pointed out, “Even if my son gets a good cut-off mark, which is above 80%, he wouldn’t get admission in a reputed institute, which is affiliated to Anna University.”
Geetha’s is not the only parent worried by a fee hike. As parents compete with each other to get admission in top private colleges in TN, private institutions also exploit a parent’s fear and anxiety over their respective wards’ futures.
K Dhanasekaran, an educational and student career consultant in the city said, “Private universities raise their fees often. This is a huge hurdle for middle-class and low-income families across the State. A monitoring committee or panel for private college institutions can regularise fees structure and make it uniform. However, parents prefer their wards to study in private universities considering the better infrastructure including labs and good job placement.”
M Sanjay Krishnan, a senior administrative staff from a Deemed university near Chennai, defended the fee hike and said that the major expense for an institution would be salaries for faculty members, administrative employees, support staff, housekeeping persons, security personnel etc. “Similarly, the university should also be equipped with the latest computer systems and software both for students and college staff to get the best ranking and grade from the Ministry of Education. Technical labs also need to be upgraded regularly as per the current industrial requirements. All of this costs money,” he lamented.
According to the data collected from various private universities, the annual fee for private engineering colleges in Tamil Nadu (Rs 2-15 lakh depending on the course) includes tuition, admission, laboratory, computer, internet, library, sports, placement, training, maintenance, and extracurricular activities. “B Tech Computer Science, AI, Machine learning and Data Science courses are the most expensive with the colleges annually charging between 2.5 lakh to Rs 4 lakh, and that too, without capitation fees,” he added.
A recent report by CollegeDekho HEART 2024 said that in the last 3 years, Tamil Nadu has topped the list of states where students choose to pursue higher education locally. According to Ruchir Arora, CEO and co-founder of CollegeDekho, “Chennai and Coimbatore are the top cities students prefer to move to. Among digitally connected students who migrate within TN, 4.6% are from Chennai.”
The report noted that students who are digitally enrolled in Tamil Nadu mostly choose science, engineering, and management related courses. And, that there has been a significant increase in the number of students preferring to stay within their state for higher education (intra-state migration), rising from 31% to 42% over the past 3 years.
A senior official from the Higher Education Department told DT Next: “A regulatory body with the powers to regulate deemed-to-be universities will be put in place as per the expert committee suggestion submitted to the State government. The body will have the power to regulate admission procedure including admission of fixed percentage of the total intake of students from TN in each course every year as may be determined by the State government, fee structure that may be determined by the fee committee, emolument structures for teaching and non-teaching staff as decided by the State, adopting reservation policy of the State and the allied issues.”
The regulatory body will also have the power to regulate issues in respect of all autonomous institutions within the context of social justice for providing education for the downtrodden, marginalised and suppressed class of students from TNs.
