NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR TEACHER EDUCATION

NOTIFICATION

New Delhi, the 18th June, 2002

[Published in the Gazette of India Part III-Section 4 as No. 133 dated 1.7.2002]

F.No. 5-1/2001- NCTE(Acad). _ Whereas the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) is satisfied that it is necessary in public interest to lay down guidelines regarding tuition fees and other fees chargeable by unaided teacher education institutions offering teacher training programmes. NOW THEREFORE in exercise of powers conferred by Section 12 (h) read with Section 32(2) (d) (v) of the National Council for Teacher Education Act, 1993 (No. 73 to 1993), the NCTE hereby makes the following Regulations namely :_

1.       Short title and commencement

           (i)      These Regulations may be called the National Council for Teacher Education (Guidelines for regulation of tuition fees and other fees chargeable by unaided teacher education institutions) Regulations, 2002.

           (ii)     They shall come into force on the date of their publication in the Official Gazette.

2.       Applicability

These regulations shall, for the time being, apply to institutions which offer courses or training in teacher education (other than those institutions offering a teacher education programme leading to a university degree) as defined in Section 2(e) of the NCTE Act, 1993 and operating on “no grant-in-aid”/“self-financing” basis.

3.       Definitions

           In these Regulations, unless the context otherwise requires:-

           (a)     “Act” means the National Council for Teacher Education Act, 1993 (No. 73 of 1993);

           (b)     “Council” means the National Council for Teacher Education established under Section 3 of the Act;

           (c)     “Committee” means the State Level Committee;

           (d)     “Competent authority” means the University Grants Commission, the Central Government, a State Government or any other authority, as may be designated by the Council, to determine the fees or scales of fees payable by students and the allotment of students for admission to various teacher training institutions;

           (e)     “Fees” in relation to payment seats or free seats means all the institutional fees including tuition fee and development fee;

           (f)      “Free Seats” means seats on which the fee payable by a student seeking admission to, and prosecution of a course of study at a level corresponding to the fees as specified for the Government colleges and institutions in the concerned State in respect of similar courses of study;

           (g)     “Institution” means an institution which offers courses of training in teacher education;

           (h)     “Recognised institution” means an institution recognised by the Council under Section 14 of the Act;

           (i)      “NRI” means a Non-Resident Indian and the expression “non-resident” has the same meaning as assigned to it under the Income-tax Act, 1961 (43 of 1961);

           (j)       “Payment Seats” means seats other than Free Seats and for which fee payable by a student seeking admission to, and prosecution of, a course of study shall not exceed the limits specified under these Regulations;

           (k)     “State” includes a Union Territory;

           (l)       “Section” means a section of the Act; and

           (m)    “Student” includes a person seeking admission in a course of study.

4.       Admission

           (1)     No student other than a student who fulfils the requirements of the NCTE Regulations laying down the norms and standards for various teacher education programmes shall be eligible for admission to a teacher education programme.

           (2)     Eligibility of candidates and the procedure for admission will be regulated as per the policy of the State Government and in terms of NCTE Regulations, laying down the norms and standards for various teacher education programmes, as amended from time to time.

        (3) (i)   At least 50 per cent of the seats in every recognised institution shall be Free Seats and the remaining 50 per cent be Payment Seats.

              (ii)  The criteria of eligibility and other conditions shall be the same in respect of both Free Seats and Payment Seats, except that a higher fee is to be paid for Payment Seats.

             (iii)  The management of a recognised institution shall not be entitled to impose any additional eligibility criteria or conditions for admission either to Free Seats or Payment Seats.

(4)      Private recognised institutions shall be permitted to admit the NRI/foreign students up to a maximum of 5 per cent of the total intake approved by the Council from time to time for each academic year. This percentage shall be out of Payment Seats.

(5)      (i)      There shall be no quota of seats for the management or for any family, caste or community which had established the institution.

           (ii)     The competent authority may, at its discretion, fill any seat which may remain unfilled in five per cent NRI quota in any academic year.

           (iii)    The fees chargeable from the students admitted under sub-regulation (ii) above shall be the same as chargeable for the students admitted against Payment Seats and not against the NRI Seats.

5.       Constitution of Committees for fixation of fees payable

           (i)      The fees in recognised institutions (other than those institutions offering a teacher education programme leading to a university degree) operating on “no grant-in-aid”/“self-financing” basis shall be determined by a State Level Committee;

           (ii)     The State Level Committee which may be constituted in every State by the concerned Government shall consist of :

                        (a)     Secretary in-charge of Teacher Education of the State Government–Chairman;

                        (b)     Secretary of the Finance Department of the State Government or his Nominee–Member;

                        (c)     Representative of the Department dealing with physical education, if such a Department exists, to be nominated by the State Government  –Member;          

                        (d)     Three experts, one each in Institutional Finance, Cost Accountancy and Economics to be nominated by the State Government–Member;

                        (e)     Director in-charge of Teacher Education of the State Government– Member Secretary.

           The concerned government may nominate any other official to serve on the Committee.

6.       Procedure to be adopted by the Committee

           (1)     Secretarial assistance to the State Level Committee shall be given by the Directorate of the State Government which is entrusted with the concerned teacher education programme as per the rules of procedure of the State Government.

           (2)     The term of office of the Members of the State Level Committee constituted under Regulation 5 (ii), other than the ex-officio Members, shall be three years.

           (3)     The State Level Committee shall review the fee structure at an interval of three academic years.

           (4)    (i)      Subject to provisions of these regulations, the Committee is free to devise its own procedure. The procedure shall, however compulsorily include giving opportunity to the institutions concerned to furnish such material as they may consider relevant. The Committee shall also have power to call for such information and details as it may consider relevant for fixation of fees. To carry out its functions effectively, the Committee shall lay down a time bound ‘action-calendar’ and ‘dead-lines’ for compliance by the institutions concerned and for completing its tasks.

           (5)     The Committee may determine different rates or scales of fees for different classes of institutions, if a classification is justified on intelligible and objective criteria. In particular, the Committee shall be free to fix different rates for institutions located in tribal areas, rural areas and urban areas.

           (6)     While determining the fee chargeable, it shall be the duty of the Committee to ensure that the fee does not become a source of profit or commercialization for the institutions concerned.

7.       Criteria and procedure for determining fees

           (i)      The fees to be charged shall have two broad categories, namely, tuition fee and development fee.

           (ii)     While deciding the fee structure for Free Seats, Payment Seats and NRI Foreign students, the Committee shall  take into consideration the parameters which affect the cost, the total expenditure of the institution for running the professional course as computed on the basis of audited statements of the previous two years and reasonable projected estimation for the next three years.

           (iii)    The tuition fee shall be to meet the actual cost of imparting education.

           (iv)     While assessing a fair tuition fee, the Committee shall take into account the facilities required to be provided as per the NCTE Regulations laying down the norms and standards for the relevant teacher education programme. In addition, the Committee shall specifically take into account the following aspects :_

                    (a)    Salary and allowances including bonus, if admissible, payable to teaching and non-teaching employees;

                    (b)    Expenditure on administrative services;

                    (c)     Cost of maintenance of laboratories including consumables;

                     (d)    Contingent expenditure including statutory requirements like audit fee, and the like;

                    (e)    Cost of acquisition of books and journals for libraries;

                    (f)      Maintenance of buildings and other assets including rents and tariffs; and

                    (g)    Any other recurring expenditure to be determined by the competent authority, from time to time.

           (v)      The Committee may seek any data or clarification from the concerned professional institutions.

           (vi)     Having due regard to the parameters mentioned in sub-regulation (iv) above, suitable rates may be fixed for holders of Free Seats, Payment Seats and NRI Foreign students.

           (vii)    The management of the institution may realize the actual cost of board and lodging from the students subject to the Committee being satisfied about the reasonableness of such costs.

           (viii)   The Committee shall at an interval of three years determine the development fee and different rates of development fee may be specified for students of Free Seats, Payment Seats and Foreign NRI seats.

           (ix)     The development fee may be at flat rates.

           (x)      Based on intelligible and objective criteria, the Committee may classify the institutions into different categories for the purpose of prescribing different slabs or rates of development fees.

           (xi)     While determining the rates of development fees, the Committee shall take into account the views and suggestions of the private professional institutions, and of interested members of the general public.

           (xii)    No management of a teacher education institution shall in the first ten years of its establishment, appropriate more than fifty per cent of the proceeds of the development fee levied or the actual capital cost, whichever is lower, for the recovery of the capital cost. The remaining amount shall be utilized for upgradation and replacements in the said first ten years and, thereafter, the entire proceeds may be utilized for upgradation and replacement purposes.

As the scheme laid down by the Supreme Court of India in Unnikrishnan J.P. Versus State of Andhra Pradesh (A.I.R. 1993 S.C. 2178) prohibits commercialization of education and profit making, it shall not be open to the institutions concerned to claim any return on investments. This may, however, not come in the way of the institutions in mobilizing resources for the replacement and upgradation of assets. Further, while earning returns on the investment would not be permissible as per the judgement and order of the Supreme Court of India in Unnikrishnan J.P. Versus State of Andhra Pradesh (A.I.R. 1993 SC 2478), the court had, left the question of recovering investment on the Central Government and the statutory bodies. It is, therefore, considered desirable that the development fee could provide for an element of partial capital cost recovery to the Management (but not a return on investment) and to serve as a resource for upkeep and replacement.

8.       Maintenance of account of fees

           (1)     Every Institution shall maintain two separate accounts, namely, the Maintenance Accounts and the Development Accounts.

           (2)     (i)      The proceeds of tuition fee and cost recoveries of board and lodging charges and other miscellaneous fees shall be credited to the maintenance accounts.

                    (ii)     The maintenance accounts shall be kept in two parts, namely, (a) the pay and allowances, and (b) the other expenditure.

                    (iii)    All recurring expenditure shall be met from the maintenance account and brought to account in the part relating to pay and allowances, or as the case may be, under the other expenditure.

           (3)     At least half of the proceeds of development fee shall be credited to the development account in the first ten years of establishment of the institution, after which this Account (Development Account) will receive the entire proceeds of this fee. Miscellaneous receipt of the institution would also be credited to the same account. The proceeds of this fee would be utilized for the procurement of equipment, books and journals, and the acquisition of assets. The management may debit expenditure on improvement of faculty to this account.

           (4)     The accounts the teacher education institutions shall be audited every year to ensure that the financial management conforms to the broad framework of these regulations and the guidelines issued by the Council from time to time.

9.       Other procedural matters connected with levy of fees

        (1)       (i)    Fees or the scales of fees once fixed under these Regulations  shall be valid for a period of at least three years.

                   (ii)   The fees when revised shall be applicable only to new entrants.

                   (iii)  Fees may be payable in advance for a semester.

                   (iv)  Each Committee shall notify in the month of December every year for general information, the total fee payable per semester for the next year, in three news papers having circulation in the State concerned. Every year, the Committee shall fix the fees applicable for the third year.

        (2)       No recognised teacher education institution shall :

                   (i)    Levy any fee exceeding the fee notified under these regulations.

                   (ii)   Fail to maintain accounts required to be maintained as per the provisions of these regulations or the guidelines issued by the Council.

        (3)       Institutions which levy fee at rates higher than those fixed, or fail to maintain accounts in the manner laid down or are otherwise found to contravene the provisions of these Regulations, are liable to have their recognition withdrawn.

10.  Information required by the Council

        The Council may at any time call for information and clarifications from the Committee and the Committee shall be bound to furnish such information or clarification.

11.  Regulation of fees for teacher education programmes leading to a university degree

        For teacher education institutions and such other bodies offering a teacher educaiton programme leading to a university degree, the provisions contained in the University Grants Commission (Regulation of Admission and Fees in private non-aided professional institutions) Regulations, 1997, as amended from time to time, will apply mutatis mutandis, subject to the condition that while determining the fee structure for a teacher education programme leading to a university degree, the Standing Committee of the University Grants Commission or the State Level Committee, as the case may be, will take into account the facilities required to be provided as per the NCTE Regulations laying down the norms and standards for the relevant teacher education programme.

12. Interpretation

        (1)       If any question arises as to  the interpretation of these regulations, it shall be decided by the Council.

        (2)       The Council shall have the power to issue clarifications to remove any doubt which may arise in regard to the implementation of these regulations.

S.K. RAY, Member Secretary

{ADVT.III/IV/131/2002/Exty.}