BENGALURU: The students aspiring to get into undergraduate engineering courses have to pay more for 2019-20 academic year as the government on Saturday agreed to increase the fee by 10 per cent.
For the coming academic year, the students have to pay Rs 58,800 for government quota seats at private engineering colleges and Rs 1,53,748 for seats available under Consortium of Medical Engineering and Dental Colleges of Karnataka (COMEDK). The university fee will be separate, which will be around Rs 8,000 to Rs 10,000.
The hike was agreed upon following a meeting convened by Higher education minister G T Devegowda with the representatives of Karnataka Unaided Private Engineering Colleges Association (KUPECA) and Karnataka Religious and Linguistic Minority Professional Colleges Association.
Briefing the the media after the meeting Devegowda said, “The private college managements demanded a 25% hike. We discussed with them . Also the Chief Minister spoke to the management representatives over telephone and convinced them for 10% hike.”
In a span of two years, the government increased the engineering fee by 18%. During 2018-19 academic year, the fee was increased by 8% and this time it has agreed for 10%. “Last year, though the government agreed to give 15% hike, the Fee Regulatory Committee headed by Justice Shylendra Kumar fixed a maximum of 8% hike. So considering legal complications, the government convinced us and we agreed for 8%. But this time we demanded 25% and finally it came down to 10%,” said M K Panduranga Setty, Secretary, KUPECA.
However, the state government, this time round, has decided on the fee in the absence of a Fee Regulatory Committee. The previous committee constituted by the state government and headed by Justice D V Shylendra Kumar has been dissolved and a new committee is yet to be appointed.When questioned about the formation of the committee, the officials of the state higher education department said that there was no decision yet on it.