Now, colleges agree to pay up
After the Big Fleece, it’s now time to refund some of those fees. That’s why, almost admitting that they were charging students excess fees, Gujarat University-affiliated MBA and MCA colleges have decided to refund the extra money they charged their students.

So far, four managements have informed the Vice-Chancellor that they were willing to return the excess fees charged from the students since 1999-2000. Vice-Chancellor A U Patel said four trusts have already informed him about their decision. ‘‘Some of the trusts have already kept aside nearly Rs 50 lakh to return it to the students.’’

Patel said those trusts that have agreed to return the excess fees are Ahmedabad Education Society (AES), Gujarat Law Society (GLS), National Institute of Cooperative Managements (NICM) and S K Institute in Gandhinagar.

Patel said: ‘‘The State Government is investigating the case and is yet to come out with the findings. Once they’re out, we will ask these managements to return the fees.’’

Three institutes are yet to make up their mind on returning the excess fees — these include Som-Lalit, which is run by P K Shastri, son of former Vice-Chancellor K S Shastri and Chiman Patel Institute of Siddharth Patel, Swaminarayan Education trust. Prafulbhai Anubhai, trustee of Ahmedabad Education Society (AES), said: ‘‘We have already set aside nearly Rs 48 lakh which will be deposited in Gujarat University (GU). We will abide by Gujarat University orders in toto and will return all the excess fees.’’

‘‘The managements of MBA and MCA colleges are not at fault because it was the GU directive that asked them to charge the fees which they collected from the students.’’

MBA and MCA colleges have charged near Rs 5,500 extra for regular seats and Rs 12,500 for payment seats in the MBA course per student. For the MCA course, these colleges charged Rs 6,000 extra for regular seats and Rs 7,500 for payment seats.

Sudhir Nanavati, president of the Management Association and trustee of Gujarat Law Society, said: ‘‘We need a certification from the State-level committee that we’ve charged excess fees on the direction of Gujarat University and we (GLS) are willing to give back the fees. We also have made provisions to refund the money whenever required.’’

Narhari Amin, who is the vice-president of NICM, has also admitted that NICM will refund excess fees. Amin is out of the country and could not be contacted.

This is the first time that college managements have agreed to refund the excess fees. Nanavati had, after a meeting with Vice-Chancellor A U Patel, blamed GU officials for misguiding colleges and asking them to ‘‘charge high fees.’’

Republished from The Asian Age