A meeting between the State government and private engineering college managements to decide fee structure for the coming academic year ended inconclusively here on Tuesday. With the Common Entrance Test (CET) for admissions to government and government-quota professional seats scheduled on May 1 and 2, there is no solution in sight.
The meeting gains prominence in the light of a recent High Court of Karnataka direction to the government to formulate fee structure within four weeks (from March 31) as per the Karnataka Professional Educational Institutions (Regulation of Admission and Fixation of Fee) Act, 2006.
Sources said that the private engineering colleges placed the issue of the “sick engineering colleges” that constitute about 80 per cent of such colleges in the State, suffering due to the existing fee structure. “We told the government that the same fee structure cannot be retained year after year as it is not viable. While the government expressed its inability to implement the Act this year as it was too late, it has assured us that our concerns will be considered,” a private college representative said.
M.K. Panduranga Setty, secretary, Karnataka Unaided Private Engineering Colleges’ Association (KUPECA), however, only said that another round of discussions was expected in 48 hours.
Higher Education Minister R.V. Deshpande, who chaired the meeting, said that the private college managements had informed the government that the association will meet and “get back to the government”.
