HYDERABAD: The state govt has fixed engineering college fees for the 2025–28 block period, bringing partial relief to students as more institutions have been placed in the minimum fee slab and steep hikes proposed by several colleges were moderated.
According to the GO issued on Friday, the number of colleges charging the minimum annual fee of Rs 45,000 has increased threefold — from seven in the 2022–25 block period to 21 now. In many cases where colleges sought hikes of up to 100%, the govt retained fees close to existing levels.
Overall, the fee revision ranges from ‘no increase’ to about 65%, with a few colleges even witnessing reductions. The highest annual fee, earlier expected to touch Rs 3 lakh, has been fixed at Rs 1.83 lakh.
The highest fee applies to Chaitanya Bharathi Institute of Technology Society, about Rs 43,000 higher than in the previous block period. The fee at Vasavi College of Engineering has been revised to Rs 1.75 lakh per year, an increase of about Rs 35,000.
“There is a lot of difference between the tentative fee we were informed of after the personal hearing and the one mentioned in the GO. It looks like they mentioned some random numbers without taking into account the expenditure and other details provided,” said one of the correspondents of an engineering college.
Some institutions saw significant hikes. G Narayanamma Institute of Technology and Science for Women’s fee rose from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 1.62 lakh, while Gokaraju Rangaraju Institute of Engineering and Technology’s fee increased from Rs 1.3 lakh to Rs 1.6 lakh.
At the same time, some colleges saw marginal increases or almost no change. Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Technology’s fee rose slightly from Rs 1.6 lakh to Rs 1.67 lakh, while Sreenidhi Institute of Science and Technology’s fee increased from Rs 1.3 lakh to Rs 1.33 lakh. CVR College of Engineering and BV Raju Institute of Technology also recorded moderate hikes.
A few institutions witnessed fee reductions. Anurag University’s fee has been fixed at Rs 99,900 compared with Rs 1.35 lakh earlier, while Malla Reddy College of Engineering and Technology’s fee dropped to Rs 99,800 from Rs 1.1 lakh. The Institute of Aeronautical Engineering’s fee was revised downwards to Rs 97,500 from Rs 1.01 lakh.
Of the 160 engineering colleges covered under the revision, about 40 will charge more than Rs 1 lakh annually during the 2025–28 block period.
“It’s good to see that a greater number of colleges now have minimum fees, and the fees of some colleges went down, and some did not see any revision. But the problem is we do not know on what basis this revision is done. For sure, salaries of staff did not increase,” said A. Santosh Kumar, president of the Telangana Schools Technical Colleges Association.
The govt has also issued orders fixing fees for pharmacy, B Arch, MBA and MCA courses.
