Andhra Pradesh Admission and Fee Regulatory Committee (for Professional Courses offered in Private Un-Aided Professional Institutions) Rules, 2006
Published vide Notification No. G.O. Ms. No. 6, Higher Education (EC.2), dated 08.01.2007
Last Updated 25th September, 2019 [ap603]
(a) "Act" means the Andhra Pradesh Educational Institutions (Regulation of Admissions and Prohibition of Capitation Fee) Act, 1983 (A.P.Act No. 5 of 1983).
(b) "Admissions and Fee Regulatory Committee (AFRC)" means the Committee constituted by the Government for regulating the admissions/fixation of fees to be charged from candidates seeking admission into Private Unaided Minority and Non-Minority Professional Institutions.
(c) "Committee for Common Entrance Test" means the Committee empowered by the Association(s) of Private Un-Aided Professional Colleges to conduct the Common Entrance Test (CET) for the relevant Professional Course(s).
(d) "Common Entrance Test (CET)" means the Test conducted by the Association of Private Un-aided Professional Institutions for admission to Professional courses.
(e) "Competent Authority" means the Chairman, Andhra Pradesh State Council of Higher Education.
(f) "Convenor of CET Admissions" means a person nominated by the Association(s) of Private Un-Aided Professional Colleges for selection and allotment of qualified candidates for admission.
(g) "Concerned Minority" means the Linguistic or Religious Minority status accorded to the Minority Institution.
(h) "Fee" means all fees including tuition fee and development charges.
(i) "Government" means the State Government of Andhra Pradesh,
(j) "Institutions" means, unless otherwise specifically mentioned, all the private Unaided Minority and Non-Minority Professional Institutions.
(k) "Minority Professional Institution" means an Institution imparting professional education, established and administered for and by the concerned minority and recognized as such by the Government.
(l) "Professional Education" means any course in Engineering Pharmacy, Planning and Architecture, Agriculture, Medicine (including Demal), MBA, MCA, Law, Education or any other course as notified by the Government in this behalf, at Undergraduate, Postgraduate or above levels.
(ii) Words and expressions used but not defined in these rules shall have the same meaning assigned to them in the Andhra Pradesh Educational Institutions. (Regulation of Admissions and Prohibition of Capitation Fee) Act, 1983, (Act 3 of 1983)
3. Constitution, Composition, Disqualification and Functions of admission and fee regulatory committee. - (i) Government shall by notification constitute an AFRC for regulating the admission and fixing the fees to be charged from the candidates seeking admission to all the private Unaided-Professional Institutions.(ii) The AFRC shall consist of the following.
(a) A retired Judge of High Court - Chairman
(b) Vice Chancellor of one of the State Universities nominated by the Committee provided that the Vice Chancellor of J.N.T.U/NTR University of Health Sciences shall be nominated in case of Engineering/Medical education. Member
(c) Two members having experience in the matters of (i) Education administration in the concerned discipline and (ii) Finance nominated by the Committee. Member
(d) Chairman, Andhra Pradesh State Council of Higher Education. Member
(e) Principal Secretary/Secretary to Government - Higher Education/ Medical and/Health/School Education (depending on type of Professional education involved.) Member Secretary
(f) One representative of AICTE/ MCLDCLNCTE (as the case may be) Member
(g) Any special invitee as decided by the Chairman.
(iii) Subject to pleasure of the Government the term of office of the AFRC shall be three years from the date of its constitution and in case of any vacancy arising earlier, for any reason, the Government shall fill such vacancy for the remainder of the term.
(iv) No act or proceedings of the AFRC shall be deemed to be invalid by reason merely of any vacancy in or any defect in the constitution of the committee.
(v) No person who associates with a private unaided institution shall be eligible for being a member of the AFRC.
(vi) A member of the AFRC shall cause to be so if he performs any act, which in the opinion of the Government, is unbecoming of a member of the AFRC Provided that, no such member shall be removed from the AFRC, without giving him an opportunity of being heard.
(vii) The AFRC may frame its own procedure in accordance with the Regulations notified by the Government in this regard.
(viii) The AFRC shall have power to require a Private Unaided Professional Educational Institution to furnish, by a prescribed date, information as may be necessary for enabling the Committee to regulate the conduct admissions and/ or to fix the fee in respect of each professional course offered in the Institution.
(ix) The APRC shall specify the standards and procedures to be adopted by the Association of Private Unaided Professional Educational Institutions in conducting the CET for admission to Professional courses and shall oversee the conduct of such Tests and declaration of their results.
(x) The AFRC shall ensure that the CET is conducted in a fair and transparent manner. If the AFRC comes to the conclusion, after giving an opportunity of representation, that the CET was not conducted in a fair and transparent manner, it shall have the power to cancel the test and order, either for a fresh test to be conducted by the Convenor without charging any extra fee for the purpose from the candidates, or recommend to the Competent Authority to step in and conduct re-examination. In the latter event, the Association of Private Unaided Colleges shall reimburse the expenditure incurred in that regard as determined by the Competent Authority.
(xi) The AFRC may, if it comes to the conclusion after giving an opportunity of representation, that an Institution has violated any provisions of the Act, these rules, or the relevant admission rules, recommend to the appropriate statutory body and the concerned University for the withdrawal of the affiliation or recognition of such institution.
(xii) The AFRC shall call for options from Un-Aided Minority and Non-Minority Professional Institutions to opt either for the Common Entrance Test Conducted by the Government or its Agency or the Common Entrance Test conducted by the Association of Professional College
(xiii) The AFRC shall call for options from Unaided Minority Professional Institutions to opt either for the Single Window System for admissions to be operated by the Government or its agency or the same operated by the Association of Unaided Professional Institutions
(xiv) The AFRC shall supervise the admissions made by the Private Professional Educational Institutions and ensure that the admissions are done in a fair, transparent and non-exploitative Manner. If the AFRC comes to the conclusion, after giving an opportunity of representation, that the admissions were not conducted in a fair, transparent and non-exploitative manner or were not conducted in accordance with the relevant admission rules, it shall have the power to cancel such admissions and issue such orders as it may deem fit.
4. Fee Fixation. - (i) The AFRC shall call for, from each Institution, its proposed fee structure well in advance before the date of issue of notification for admission for the academic year along with all the relevant documents and books of accounts for security,(ii) The AFRC shall decide whether the fees proposed by the Institution is justified and does not amount to profiteering or charging of capitation fee
(iii) The AFRC shall be at liberty to approve or alter the proposed fee for each course to be charged by the Institution.
Provided that it shall give the Institution an Opportunity of being heard before fixing any fee or fees.(iv) The AFRC shall take into consideration the following factors while prescribing the fee:
(a) the location of the professional institution,
(b) the nature of the professional course,
(c) the cost of available infrastructure,
(d) the expenditure on administration and maintenance,
(e) a reasonable surplus required for growth and development of the professional Institution,
(f) the revenue foregone on account of waiver of fee, if any, in respect of students belonging to the Schedule Caste, Schedule Tribes and wherever applicable to the Socially and Educationally Backward Classes and other Economically Weaker Sections of the society, to such extent as shall be notified by the Government from time to time.
(g) Any other relevant factor.
Provided that, no such fees, as may be fixed by the AFRC, shall amount to profiteering or commercialization of education, (v) The AFRC shall communicate the fee structure as determined by it, to the Government, for notification.(vi) The fee or scale of fee determined by the AFRC shall be valid for a period of three years (vii) The fee so determined shall be applicable to a candidate who is admitted to an institution in that academic year and shall not be altered till the completion of his course in the Institution in which he was originally admitted, No Professional Educational Institution shall collect at a time 8 fee which is more than one year's fee from 8 candidate.
5. General. - (i) The Chairman and other members of the AFRC will be entitled to such emoluments as may be notified by the Government.(ii) The AFRC shall setup its office and plan their requirement for secretarial service, office assistance and the necessary infrastructure.
(iii) The AFRC may also outsource the services for data entry and analysing the information submitted by the Institution for the fixation of fees and also for maintenance of its office records.
(iv) The Andhra Pradesh State Council of Higher Education (APSCHE) shall provide necessary secretarial assistance to the said committee, The Chairman of the Committee will be entitled to perquisites, privileges, etc. as are applicable to a serving Judge of the High Court of Andhra Pradesh, The payment of T.A and D.A etc. to the non-official members shall be regulated as prescribed under Rule-13, of special rules in Annexure-Vl under Rule-91 of Andhra Pradesh Civil Services (Travelling Allowance) Rules, The Andhra Pradesh State Council of Higher Education shall also meet the expenses towards the functioning of the Committee including payment of salaries, Travelling Allowance, dearness Allowance, etc.from the funds allocated by the Government.