Maharashtra doubles fee for 50% management quota seats in veterinary sciences, dairy tech colleges

Days after adding new private self-finance colleges for veterinary sciences and dairy technology admissions, the Maharashtra Fee Regulating Authority (FRA) has allowed them to charge double the fee amount for 50% management quota seats.

The decision was made after some FRA members alleged that the colleges were showing smaller than actual fee receipts for the veterinary and dairy category of seats in order to demand higher fees for regular students.

“The authority also decided that, while fixing fees for all professional courses, it will presume that the colleges charged the higher fee amount from management and NRI quotas students -- three times the regular fees for former and five times for the latter -- even if the colleges' income and expenditure statements indicate lower fee receipts,” according to an official notification.

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Increase in veterinary science, dairy tech seats

Maharashtra follows an expenditure-based fee fixation model, where the higher fee charged from management and NRI students is used to cross-subsidise fees for regular students, the statement read.

Notably, the newly added veterinary colleges will each have 80 seats for admission to Bachelor of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry (BVS and AH), while the dairy technology institutes will offer each 40 seats for the BTech dairy technology courses.

The admission process at the new institutes, as well as the existing government-funded colleges for the two agricultural streams, for the academic year 2026-27 has been delayed by almost three months.

The delay in deciding this fee amount, along with other administrative hurdles, had held the admission process for around three months.

Last year, the Maharashtra FRA permitted all the professional colleges under the higher education, technical colleges, and agricultural departments to charge substantially higher fees for management and NRI quota seats.