Mumbai colleges have undergone a significant shift, with unaided courses rising in popularity due to their “industry-ready” appeal and promise of better placements

MUMBAI: About a decade ago, in a corner of the economics department at St Xavier’s College, someone scribbled a simple equation on the back of a cafeteria napkin. It was an attempt to put a price on knowledge-how much did a student really pay for each lecture? The answer was a jaw-dropping 65 paise.

A lecture in an aided course, back then, was cheaper than a cup of roadside chai. The govt chipped in; education was aided and affordable for all. But those days, like old college chalkboards, have faded into sepia. Fast forward to the past seven or eight years, and the campus landscape has changed. The rise of unaided courses-marketed with sleek brochures as “innovative” and “industry-ready”-has rewritten the college catalogue.These programmes come with a higher threshold for Class 12 scores, visiting faculty who carry the weight of boardrooms, and well-oiled placement machinery. Once rare and peripheral, these courses have now ballooned-spilling across timetables, drawing aspirants in hoards. But along with prestige and promise, they’ve brought price tags that make 65 paise sound like folklore, pushing many in the lower middle class to take a loan to pay fees.Principals recall a quieter era, when govt aid paid for leaky roofs and crumbling staircases, and kept classrooms stocked with chalk. That changed with the slow, unceremonious withdrawal of maintenance grants. Vacant teaching posts-once filled with an air of urgency-began to gather dust. “Today, many institutions shuffle along with half their sanctioned faculty missing in action,” said a principal.And then came the push. From being hand-held by the state, colleges were nudged into becoming “self-sustaining”. To stay afloat, colleges launched unaided courses, the academic equivalent of boutique ventures. Visiting faculty and industry professionals were brought in; their honorariums, one principal admitted, were anything but modest. Full-time faculty for these programmes, too, came with steeper bills.And since the state had bowed out of the financial equation, students were left footing it.And this, she said, “led to a caste system”, a college within the college. “Soon after, parents started rejecting ‘plain’ commerce and ‘plain’ science,” she explained further. “A student with 38% came and asked for admission in business analytics. I was shocked and asked if he would be able to cope, but the parent and child had lost faith in the old courses.”A shift in parental psyche accompanied the fee spike. “Parents would ask again and again-‘Did you say Rs 445 a month?’ as if we had it wrong,” recalled another principal. “They were used to paying lakhs in school and couldn’t believe college could cost less.”Yet, somewhere in this price-value spiral, perspective got misplaced. Students and parents felt “innovative” courses were better than the regular commerce and science programme. “Many of our top CEOs studied ‘regular’ commerce. Scientists like Jayant Narlikar studied plain science with physics,” said a principal. “The course didn’t make them. They made the course.”But few understand. “They look at the price and attach a value to it.” This preference for polish extends beyond pedagogy. “Students come scouting for amenities -Wi-Fi speed, smart boards, the works,” another college head said, half amused. He cited a sports management course with a Rs 2 lakh price tag. “We built a world-class artificial turf. We tied up with a professional agency. That infrastructure needs money.“At a well-known college, students in management programmes receive Harvard case studies and have access to recorded lectures. “Even though we’re an aided college, the govt only pays half the staff salaries. The rest is managed through self-financed courses,” said the principal. “And junior college fees? Just a few hundred rupees.”Another administrator pointed out the delicate balancing act: If the fees are too high, students go elsewhere. “It’s market logic,” he said. “But where things fall apart is when colleges overcharge and underdeliver.” The most common complaint? Faculty who are underpaid, underqualified, or both. “It’s an ethical failure,” he said quietly, “and the students know it.”Still, not all that glitters is academic gold. “The fees must reflect value,” said a senior administrator. In the new campus economy, where chalk is replaced by touchscreen, and trust by transaction, one truth endures: The soul of education isn’t in the amenities or the innovative taglines of courses, but in what students take away when the Wi-Fi disconnects.