The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Madurai News : Colleges up in arms against MKU course affiliation fee

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Apr 03, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Madurai

Colleges up in arms against MKU course affiliation fee

By Our Staff Reporter

MADURAI, APRIL 2. The issue of Continuation Affiliation Fee for under-graduate and post-graduate courses to be paid to the Madurai Kamaraj University by affiliated colleges is turning out to be a major issue of confrontation ahead of the ensuing academic year.

The university, in a communication to colleges last week, had asked for payment of the fee for each course which the colleges call "unjust and unfair" as huge amounts could not be paid every year for continuation of affiliation.

Even as colleges, including aided and autonomous, are coming under one banner over the payment issue, some of the colleges are even ready to exercise the option of a legal solution to the tangle. They point out that the university statute has no such mention of the fee and hence the question of payment does not arise.

University authorities told The Hindu on Saturday that an amount to the tune of Rs.1.95 crores was pending from colleges as Continuation Affiliation Fee even as the colleges argued that each college could not pay the amount that ran to several lakhs.

"We will not be able to run the college if the university collects lakhs of rupees every year. Then, we have to close the colleges," Ignatius Mary, Principal of Fatima College, said.

Several other colleges also expressed a similar view and decided that they would not remit any amount to the varsity since the prescribed fee was paid at the time of introduction of the course. Moreover, they pointed out that the varsity figure of Rs.1.95 crore was incorrect due to the fact that it included amounts pending from engineering colleges, which were earlier under its control.

"A chunk of the figure has to come from engineering colleges against whom the MKU has no hold now," said a Principal of an affiliated college.

Similarly, the Thiagarajar College got a payment reminder for Rs.3 lakhs while another autonomous college got one for Rs.24 lakhs.

M. Arunagiri, Principal, Thiagarajar College, pointed out that a one-time payment would be reasonable for the varsity "and colleges are fighting for it for a long time."

Emergency meeting

Meanwhile, the MKU College Managements Association has called for an emergency general body meeting here on April 4 to discuss the fallout of the university circular.

The association's executive secretary and Principal of Yadava College, G. Thiruvasagam, said the issue was very serious since already colleges faced a resource crunch and declining student strength.

Moreover, demanding such a fee was `unfair' since colleges, particularly, the rural ones, could not pay large amounts even for traditional courses, he said.

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