For the longest time, the exorbitant fees charged by private universities has made them inaccessible to those from the fringes of society. In this context, Andhra Pradesh's made the decision to reserve 35 per cent of seats in all private universities under the 'Convenor' quota and even proceed to fix the fees charged. These seats will be allocated by the State Government itself, based on the results of state-level common entrance tests.
For those aspiring students who are eligible under Jagananna Vidya Deevena, the State Government will also pay the fees. With this, the government hopes that it will be making education a whole lot more accessible to all. The universities will have no right to give away the seats reserved under this quote or charge more fees than the fixed amount. A point to note here is that the reservation will not apply to deemed universities as they are regulated by the University Grants Commission (UGC). But the State Government has already written to the UGC with a request to allow this policy to be implemented, so that it can have more far-reaching benefits.
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"The vision of our CM is to make quality and affordable education available to every single student in AP. For a long time now, a lot of students hailing from poor or middle-class families were either overburdened or had to forego their seats in private universities due to the exorbitant fees collected by the authorities," said Prof Hemachandra Reddy, Chairman, Andhra Pradesh State Council of Higher Education (APSCHE).
The October 24 notification states that the arrangement for 2021-22 and 2022-23 will be blocked. The fee cap will be in the range of Rs 40,000 to Rs 70,000 and will apply to Bharatiya Engineering Science & Technology Innovation University, Anantapur; Centurion University of Technology and Management, Vizianagaram; VIT University Amaravati and SRM University Amaravati.
