BANGALURU: Students aspiring to join private engineering colleges in the state should be ready to shell out more. Majority of these colleges have decided to increase the development fee for the academic year 2016-17 for undergraduate courses by 50 per cent, as per the information available with Express from various colleges across the state.
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 Rs8,000 to Rs70,000, 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.
A management representative of a top engineering college in the city said, “It is left to the decision of the institutes to fix the development fee. We have to increase the fee for this component to run the college as the tuition fee fixed by the state cannot be revised for three years.”
A principal of a city-based engineering college said, “There is a difference between excess fee and development fee. Development fee can be collected for the facilities provided in the lab, library, transportation and wi-fi. Though our board of management decides the percentage of increase, we are proposing for at least 30 per cent.”
After CET 2015, most colleges, including top ones in the state, have uploaded the information on prescribed development fee to be paid during admissions. The Fee Regulatory Committee had received over 350 complaints from the students and parents about the demand.
Govt Seats
The fee fixed for government quota seats is Rs45,000, as per the consensual agreement between the state and private professional colleges. During CET 2015, the state government had implemented the Karnataka Professional Educational Institutions (Regulation of Admission and Determination of Fee) Act, 2006, and brought some amendments to it.
Dr M K Panduranga Setty, secretary, Karnataka Unaided Private Engineering Colleges’ Association representing the private professional colleges in the state, said, “As of now, the 2006 Act is in force. As per the Act, tuition fee cannot be changed for three years. But the government cannot do anything as it is concerned with development fee.”
“The Act just talks about the students from Karnataka. Colleges can fix the fee for management quota seats,” Setty added.
Dr H Maheshappa, V-C, VTU, Belagavi, said, “We have received several complaints against some colleges charging excess fee in the name of development. This year, we hope the government itself will rectify it in the Act by bringing amendments.”
“There is need to regulate the colleges by fixing the amount which can be charged under development fee. As I have seen, some colleges are putting the burden of construction work on the students by saying it a developmental activity to expand the campus,” he said.
No Clarity
There is no clarity among the managements 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.”
