Almost a month after mid-day highlighted allegations that HK College of Pharmacy was overcharging students, the Fee Regulation Authority’s Grievance Redressal Committee (GRC), after initiating an inquiry into the matter, directed the institute to refund any extra money allegedly collected from students. The HK College of Pharmacy has also been asked to submit a compliance report within seven days. The committee has also asked for priority to be given to students who have actually submitted complaints to the GRC, while ensuring that no extra money is collected from students. The final verdict on the complaints, however, will be delivered after the compliance report is received.
“We emailed the college on Tuesday night. We are awaiting a response from the management. However, no students have received a response thus far,” said a pharmacy student, on the condition of anonymity. Students allege that the college was demanding an overhead of Rs 21,000 under the guise of ‘development fees’. According to the college website, a development fee is included in the total fees of academic year 2024-25.
mid-day noted that the new fee structure for 2025-26, with higher fees, was updated on the college website. “The college has reported that these fees were willingly paid by the students for extracurricular activities. However, students have stated otherwise while talking to the GRC. At the moment, we have directed the college to refund these ‘optional fees’ to all those who have approached them. If students choose not to opt for these extra activities, overhead fees cannot be levied. This year, the college fees have increased naturally with the new academic year,” said Dharamendra Mishra, an FRA member. Despite repeated attempts to contact the principal of HK College of Pharmacy, mid-day received no response.
Meanwhile, amid the admission season, the FRA has already received more than 200 student complaints about irregularities in the fee structures. A large number of them are in connection with AYUSH courses and discrepancies with a college’s ‘institutional quota’, said FRA officials. According to a recent meeting led by the authority’s member secretary and the GRC, fee-discrepancy cases related to Health Science courses have been taken on priority. Additionally, the authority is also considering the complaints received against various institutes while auditing their new fee fixation process.
