Students aspiring to join
private engineering colleges should be ready to shell out more. Majority of the
private colleges have decided to increase the fee by 50% for the academic year
2016-17 for undergraduate courses, as per the information available from several
colleges across the state. Means parents many soon be forced to spend 10 to 15
per cent more on engineering courses. This means it will affect the students who
have got the seat through state level examinations.
Few days back, medical
seat aspirants are sharing their worries too as private engineering colleges
are demanding a fee hike. This, despite a fee hike ranging between 10 and 15
per cent was affected last year for both government-quota as well as
COMEDK-quota seats. After a round of talks with medical, dental and engineering
colleges, the State government signed the consensual agreement with medical
colleges, agreeing to a 10 per cent fee hike for the 2016–17 academic year. This
means it will affect students who have got a seat through the CET, conducted by
the Karnataka Examinations Authority.
The development fee this
year ranged from Rs 8,000 to Rs 70,000, according to the data available with
Express provided by students. This has also been mentioned in the complaints
filed with the one-man Fee Regulatory Committee constituted by the state
government.
Kolkata-based Institute of
Engineering Management (IEM), for instance, has plans to hike fees from the
current Rs 70,000 to Rs 1,10,000 yearly, said by Dipak Chatterjee, director,
Kolkata-based Institute of Engineering Management (IEM). He
also says most other private engineering colleges in the state are soon likely
to follow suit. The story is similar at Bangalore’s RV College of Engineering,
one of the better known engineering institutions.
Ahmedabad-based Nirma
Institute of Technology (NIT) recently hiked its fee from Rs 2.40 lakh to
nearly Rs 3 lakh for all its four-year engineering degree courses, including
mechanical, electronics and electrical steams. Another director, of a leading
engineering college in Bangalore, says increasing the fees has become a matter
of compulsion, following the order to implement the Sixth Paying Commission
salaries.
The fees hike in private
engineering colleges is a debatable issue. The Karnataka government had set up
the B Padmaraj Committee to recommend the formula for fee hike in Karnataka.
The state, incidentally, is the second largest producer of engineers in India
and has over 1 lakh seats across 200 institutions.
According to M.K.
Panduranga Setty, secretary, Karnataka Unaided Private Engineering Colleges
Association, “It is difficult to run engineering colleges without a hike in
fees. All the costs are increasing and we need to increase the salaries of our
faculty members and also look into other recurring costs.”
According to current
rules, private engineering colleges can hike fees after government’s approval.
However, according to industry experts, there are ways to work around the
rules, given the fact that fees figures as reflected on balance sheets are
often augmented by research and infrastructure expenses among others.
No
Clarity
There is no clarity among
the colleges on whether to sign a fresh consensual agreement on the tuition fee
or not as the fee will be the same for three years. Dr M K Panduranga Setty,
secretary, Karnataka Unaided Private Engineering Colleges’ Association, said,
“Even we are not clear about the process for the next academic year. We are
waiting for a communication from the government.”
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