Pune: Savitribai Phule Pune University has officially mandated a 100% fee waiver for female students enrolling in various professional degree and postgraduate courses.

This directive, issued through a recent circular, requires all affiliated colleges and academic departments to offer free admission to female students, ensuring full tuition and examination fee waiver.

Previously, the state government’s higher education department had decided to waive 100 per cent of these fees for female students in professional courses, but the implementation had been delayed due to the lack of an official circular from the university and the technical education department. Now, with the university’s official directive, institutions must comply and provide free education to eligible female students.

To benefit from this scheme, the total income of the students' parents must not exceed eight lakhs, and the admissions must be processed through the central admission system.

While fee concessions for non-professional courses like BA, BCom, and BSc have been in place since 2017, some institutions had still been demanding fees from female students, leading to instances where students were denied admission due to financial constraints. The new directive aims to eliminate such issues, ensuring effective implementation.

The university’s circular, issued by Deputy Registrar Dr. Munjaji Rasve, instructs that female students admitted through the central admission process will now receive a 100 per cent fee waiver instead of the previous 50%.

A crucial meeting is scheduled for July 19th at the ministry to finalize the operational procedures for this decision, addressing any confusion among educational institutions and parents.

The meeting will include directors from the higher education, technical education, and medical education departments, and is expected to attract significant attention.

The operational procedures will follow the previous method, where the state government directly deposited 50 per cent of the fees into the college’s bank account. Now, female students will be admitted without any tuition fees, providing them with complete financial relief.