THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The fees for engineering courses in merit as well as management quota seats in 97 self-financing colleges have been reduced. The decision was taken by the college managements in the wake of a suggestion from Education Minister C Raveendranath that the fees should be decided on the basis of the course offered.
According to a release from the Education Minister’s office, 34 colleges have reduced the fees by up to `30,000 from the fees agreed upon in the formal agreement with the government. The merit quota fees in these colleges will be `20,000 per year.
The fees reduction has been effected even for BTech courses that are in high demand. For the Electrical and Electronics course, the fees have been reduced by `30,000 by 28 member colleges of the association.
While 17 colleges have agreed to reduce the fees for Mechanical Engineering course by `25,000, 18 colleges have agreed to reduce the fees by the same amount for the Civil Engineering course.
The colleges have decided to reduce the merit (APL category) quota fees from `75,000 to `40,000. As many as 67 colleges have agreed to fix `30,000 as the minimum fees for the merit (APL) category of students for the Electronics and Communication course.
A total of 56 colleges have agreed to offer Mechanical Engineering course for a reduced fees of `35,000.
The fees structure for merit (APL category) in all colleges is now in the `30,000 - `40,000 range.
The managements have also reduced the fees in the 35 per cent management quota seats. Instead of the annual tuition fees of `1.24 lakh per annum, 84 colleges have reduced the fees for some courses by `94,000.
This means the fees in management quota seats will be less than that in the merit quota for some courses, the release said.With majority of the self-financing colleges under the association reducing fees, other colleges are also expected to follow suit, the release said.
There are reports the fees reduction has been effected in 15 per cent NRI quota seats also, though the details were not immediately known.