Bangalore, August 3, 2013: Private colleges have decided to go ahead with their own extra fee structure amid the continuing bungling by the State government with regard to admission to professional courses.
After a series of conflicting announcements by the government on the amount of special fee and, its failure to negotiate successfully with private colleges, these institutions have gone ahead charging the extra fees.
Private colleges maintain they will stick to the extra fee structure decided among themselves.
The Karnataka Unaided Private Engineering Colleges’ Association (KUPECA) on Monday resolved to adopt the categorisation of colleges based on infrastructure, which was earlier proposed by the government. With Rs 10,000, Rs 15,000 and Rs 20,000 being the different slabs for extra fee based on infrastructure, each college will decide the category into which it falls, M K Panduranga Setty, KUPECA chairman, said. “There is no question of policing here. Each college will regulate its fee.”
Considering that most admissions are over by now and, many colleges have collected extra fee of more than Rs 25,000, the college managements will now refund the excess fee (Rs 20,000 being the cap fixed by KUPECA) or adjust it towards fee for the next academic year, Setty said. “We have not yet decided on how exactly to go about it. I will talk to the principals and resolve the matter,” he said.
Fee monitoring
Meanwhile, the government has announced that the S K Saidapur Committee to monitor extra fee will start functioning on August 13. The committee will redress grievance related to admission in professional colleges.
According to an official release issue by the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA), students may approach the committee with any admission-related complaints by giving their complete details. Prof Saidapur, former V-C of Karnatak University, will be available at II floor, KEA premises, Malleswaram, Bangalore.
He can also be reached on ksmdamc@gmail.com. His phone number will be updated soon, according to officials.
