COMEDK colleges told to charge uniform fee

‘Some charging exorbitant fees in the name of facilities’

In a move to ensure transparency in admission of students to various professional courses in private colleges, the State government on Monday directed all private college managements to charge uniform fee for various courses.

Speaking to presspersons after a meeting with COMED-K representatives, Minister for Higher Education C.T. Ravi said some colleges were charging extra fee ranging from Rs. 9,000 to Rs. 65,000 per student during admission on the pretext of providing Internet, bus service, ID card, coaching class fee and Wi-Fi etc.

Submit list

To ensure transparency in collection of fee, managements have been told to submit list of facilities they would provide to students. The government would fix the fee to be charged by colleges while signing an agreement this year, he said.

As per the agreement signed last year with the COMEDK colleges, the colleges had to charge Rs. 35,500 and Rs. 27,500 for a seat in medical and dental courses, respectively, and the fee ranging from Rs. 33,000 to Rs. 38,000 for an engineering seat.

The fee charged by minority institutions last year was Rs. 3.57 lakh and Rs. 2.53 lakh per seat in medical and dental streams respectively, and Rs. 1,10 lakh to Rs. 1.37 for a seat in engineering, the Minister said.

The fee structure, however, would be decided only after a meeting with COMED-K representatives in the next few days.

The government would not allow private managements to hike the fee substantially, Mr. Ravi said.

Colleges that had collected fees more than that prescribed by the government have been asked to refund the amount to students before the commencement of the next academic year, he said.

Panel formed

A high-level committee had been constituted to probe the affairs of engineering and medical colleges run by religious and linguistic minorities, following public complaints that some of them had misused their mandate in terms of student admission, appointment of teaching staff, and were allegedly indulging in business.

The committee comprising top officials of collegiate, technical and medical education and member-Secretary, Karnataka Knowledge Commission M K Sridhar, would probe into alleged irregularities conducted by such colleges. The panel had been asked to submit its report by March 31, he said.

As per guidelines, engineering and medical colleges are supposed to reserve 60 per cent of seats for minorities.

But there are large-scale complaints that some of them, particularly engineering colleges, were not following the rule and “selling” seats for those from outside the State, Mr Ravi said.

Admissions

The government has said admission to professional courses would be completed before July 22. While the government would hold the CET for engineering courses on May 1 and 2, COMEDK would conduct test for engineering on May 12.

The government would decide on holding the CET for medical and dental course only after the Supreme Court hearing the case on February 28.