The Assam government has set a uniform fee structure for government and provincialised colleges of the state for the first time.
The uniform fee will be applicable for both the higher secondary classes and degree courses and will have to be paid by the students who will not be able to avail of the government’s free admission scheme.
The directorate of higher education has sent the approved fee structure to all the colleges to implement from this academic session.
The need for a uniform fee was felt as it was found that the fees varied to a large scale from college to college despite the fact that all these colleges are run by the state government.
Some colleges in Guwahati used to charge upto Rs 14,000 as admission fee forcing former education minister Himanta Biswa Sarma to vow to implement a uniform fee structure.
The state education department had earlier formed a committee with then director of higher education B.L. Sarma as its chairman and principals of B. Borooah College, SB Deorah College, Bajali College, Lakhimpur Girls College, CKB College and Ratnapith College as members to recommend the uniform fee structure.
It was supposed to be implemented from the 2017-18 academic session itself.
However, the fee could not be finalised.
The state government then requested the Assam College Principal Council to prepare a uniform fee structure. The council submitted their recommendations.