Several colleges running professional courses bore the brunt of demonetisation in the 2017-18 academic year when expensive management quota seats went vacant. With each seat costing several lakhs of rupees, there were only a few takers.
Education officials as well as principals pointed out that several colleges were “forced” to make the switch in collection of fees from cash to cheque or demand drafts. A majority of the colleges refused to take cash. “This was applicable only for management quota seats and not private quota seats. In a way, this helped students with merit and also put a cap on donations and capitation fee,” a principal of a Bengaluru-based medical college said.
At the end of the counselling session conducted by the Karnataka Examinations Authority, 676 of the total 773 medical seats in the NRI and management quota category remained vacant even after the mop-up round. Similarly, 457 out of 489 dental seats in the same categories were vacant. “On the flip side, however, colleges got a few days to allot these seats and offered heavy discounts to students. Medical seats ranging from ₹22 lakh to ₹41.98 lakh per year were sold at half price,” an official from the Medical Education Department said.
M.R. Jayaram, president of Karnataka Professional Colleges Foundation, however, said that demonetisation was only one factor. He attributed other factors such as introduction of NEET responsible for vacant seats. He hoped things would stabilise for the 2018-19 academic year.
M. Prakash, secretary, Karnataka Private Postgraduate Colleges’ Association, too echoed the same but said that top colleges in the city did not face this hurdle. “It was only felt in tier-II cities,” he said and added that only 50% MBA seats were filled, which was a decline compared to 70% last academic year. Mr. Prakash also said that besides reducing profits of these higher education institutes, it also reduced investment in new colleges and halted expansion plan of several colleges.
