Eyebrows raised over TAFRC timings for personal hearings

Hyderabad: The Telangana Admission and Fee Regulatory Committee (TAFRC) notification for personal hearings for fixing fee for the block period 2022-23 is giving jitters to students, parents and faculty. The time allocated for each educational institution for personal hearings is what has come as a shocker to them.

For example, the TAFRC has decided to conduct personal hearings for fee fixation to pharmacy colleges. In all, there are 120 colleges called to attend personal hearings from August 1 to 3. The TAFRC notification allocated time slots to pharmacy colleges in two phases every day, for two and half hours in the forenoon and a similar time during the afternoon.

If one goes by the TAFRC circular, "Each college gets mere six minutes during personal hearings for pharmacy colleges." This is raising questions on the very process of personal hearings for fixing the new fee structure.

Similarly, 150 colleges offering MBA courses, have been called for personal hearings from August 10 to 13. On average the TAFRC conducts hearings for about 50 colleges a day. According to TAFRC notification, each MBA college gets five minutes during the personal hearings.

However, only nine architectural colleges have been called for personal hearings from 2 pm onwards on August 3. The TAFRC has called 145 engineering colleges for personal hearings for 10 days, between August 7-20. Each college gets 15 minutes during personal hearings.

The Telangana Schools Technical College's Employees' Association (TSTCEA) has asked the TAFRC to inquire into salaries paid by employers to faculty and details of the college management submitted to the committee for fee fixation for the block period 2022-25. Further, the TSTCEA president Aineni Santhosh Kumar expressed how is it possible to scrutinise about 40-50 colleges during the personal hearings within minutes?

Questions over the process of hearings are raised as every year students and parents take up cudgels with colleges over fee issue making it turn into a law and order problem forcing police interventions. Also, the aggrieved parents and parents' associations knock the doors of courts challenging fee hikes without properly scrutinising the parameters based on which it fixes fee.