Mumbai: The state government has directed all private or self-financed universities in the state to provide a 50% concession in fees to 10% of all their students. However, only students belonging to the economically weaker section (EWS), irrespective of their castes, can avail of this scheme.

According to a Government Resolution (GR) issued on Thursday, this initiative will help students at private universities, which don’t get the benefit of any of the state’s scholarship and fee waiver schemes. However, the universities would be required to foot the expenditure for the scheme, as the state won’t provide them with any grants for its implementation.

Maharashtra has 27 self-financed universities. These universities are different from deemed universities – or ‘deemed to be universities’ – which are the institutes attaining the status of a university from the central government owing to its high standards in a particular area of study.  The self-financed universities, on the other hand, are the institutes set up by private entities with approval from the state government.

While they are allowed to frame their own syllabus and conduct entrance tests, they are bound by the norms of the University Grants Commission (UGC) other regulatory bodies. While they also have to follow the reservation policy of the government, there’s little state control over their fee structure. As a result, their fees tend to be higher than other institutes.

“The EWS students entering private universities faced difficulty in paying fees. hence, the government received a proposal to provide concession to these students. The decision was taken considering various factors and is based on the National Education Policy’s proposal for a student-centric education,” read the GR.

The universities have been asked to provide the fee concession at the time of admission and present a report to the government within a month of concluding the admission process.

Sandip Jha, Chairman, Sandip University, a private university based in Nashik, has welcomed the decision. He, however, appealed to the government to chip in to provide educational aid to students. “Any kind of scholarship being provided to needy students is welcome. Since our inception, we have been helping students with more than Rs 10 crore worth of scholarships every year,” he said, adding, “We would appreciate if the state government shares the amount of scholarship as we are not getting any other aid from the government.”

Jha assured that the scheme won’t have any impact on the fees for other students. “We will continue to have the usual 10% hike in fees to account for inflation, but nothing beyond that,” he said.