Although the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) announced the Common Entrance Test rankings on Friday, the State government is yet to arrive at a consensus on the fee structure for engineering, medical and dental courses.
Officials of both Higher Education Department and the Medical Education Department are yet to convene a meeting with private engineering and private medical and dental college managements to discuss the fee structure.
At a press conference on Friday, Rajkumar Khatri, Principal Secretary, Higher Education Department, said they would convene a meeting with private engineering colleges within a week.
However, private colleges are gunning for a considerable fee hike.
“We want a minimum hike of 30% this year. We will not budge as the teaching and infrastructure costs have increased steeply,” said M.K. Panduranga Setty, secretary, Karnataka Unaided Private Engineering Colleges’ Association, and added that they had requested Higher Education Department officials to hold a meeting.
The government had entered into an agreement with the Karnataka Professional Colleges Foundation to increase the fees by 10% for medical courses in colleges that are part of the foundation. M.R. Jayaram, president of the foundation, said they would sign the consensual agreement if the government adhered to the hike.
The department is yet to decide on fee structure in minority medical colleges . V. Manjula, Additional Chief Secretary of the Medical Education Department, said a meeting would be convened shortly on this.
However, there is still no clarity over how the fee structure is fixed, as sources said D.V. Shylendra Kumar, chairman of the Fee Regulatory Committee, has reportedly recommended an 8% hike in the fees for medical courses.
Sources in the Medical Education Department said they would now have to hold discussions on whether the consensual agreement would be followed or if the fees would be hiked based on the committee report.
