For over a year now, students from professional colleges as well as those aspiring for a seat in one have been left in the lurch due to the absence of a fee regulatory committee.
The tenure of Justice D.V. Shylendra Kumar, who headed the committee, ended in December 2018. Since then, no committee has been in place to look into issues pertaining to the fee structure of all professional colleges, including medical, dental, engineering and allied health science among others.
The role of the committee is to prescribe the fee structure after taking into account the expenditure the colleges have borne. “The idea is to ensure that students are not burdened with a steep fee hike. The committee looks into the accounts, decides if there needs to be hike and fixes a reasonable percentage that management can hike the fee by,” a source in the Higher Education Department said.
For the 2019-20 academic year, there was no fee regulatory committee in place and the State governments and associations of different professional colleges got into a consensual agreement regarding the fees. “The fees for professional courses was hiked exorbitantly, making it difficult for students from middle-class backgrounds to pursue these courses. Managements and the government work hand in glove with each other. We need a body that will look into the fee structure at least for 2020-21,” said Aishwarya S., a medical seat aspirant.
For 2018-19, the intervention of the committee ensured that the engineering fee structure was capped at 8%, even though the State government and college managements had decided on a 10% hike.
A department source said they had written to the High Court of Karnataka requesting it to nominate a retired HC judge to head the committee. “Once we receive a nomination, we will ensure that the appointment is done immediately,” the source said.
