The fee for CENTAC-sponsored students in private medical and engineering colleges would be remitted directly to the college by the government from this academic year, announced chief minister N Rangasamy at a press conference on Monday.
All the self-financing medical and engineering colleges have been given directions not to collect the fees from students sponsored by CENTAC for admission, he said.
This is as part of implementation of Perunthalaivar Kamaraj Financial Assistance scheme, under which the fee for CENTAC- sponsored students is reimbursed by the government. In the past, students paid the fee and got themselves admitted. They would get reimbursed by the government later.
But in reality, every year, the students were charged excess of the fee fixed by the fee committee by including an additional charges (like bus fee, instruments, books, educational tours and similar such charges).
This additional fee was comparable to the tuition fees, as a result of which the fee charged by the institutions were almost double the specified amount.
Students from middle class and poor families were finding it difficultto remit the fee. In fact, there had been no transparency in fees as the actual amount charged by an institution was not made known during the CENTAC counselling.
The full amount was only revealed when they went to remit the fee for admission and several times students were taken by surprise especially students going into medical colleges. This process made some even turn back and opt for other colleges or courses.
Often many students return to mobilise the extra amount for remission. Students from poor families who want to study medicine desperately, go to any extent by pawning jewellery and selling land to pay up the fees. In this backdrop there has been demand for remission of fee directly by the government for CENTAC-sponsored students, which will prevent the difficulties faced by the students and their families.