Bengaluru, Sept 29: The Karnataka government has reached an understanding with private engineering colleges in the state that fees will not be hiked during the ongoing academic year.
According to Higher Education Minister C N Ashwathnarayan, this decision was taken on Wednesday in a meeting held with the representatives of private colleges at Vikasa Soudha.
“The fees for engineering courses in private colleges for students who secured admission this year under government quota will continue to be the same. The fees will have to be paid in two different slabs of Rs 65,340 and Rs 58,806,” Ashwathnarayan said.
Further, it was decided that the maximum amount that can be collected as ‘miscellaneous fees’ and ‘skill fees’ would be capped at Rs 20,000, as per recommendations made by a committee headed by Prof Karisiddappa, the vice-chancellor of Vishwesharaiah Technical University (VTU).
According to officials, colleges will soon be ordered to notify the purposes for which ‘miscellaneous fees’ are collected. “Colleges will be asked to furnish the said information to the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA), Department of Technical Education, and VTU to be published on corresponding websites,” a senior official said.
Ashwathnarayan said that the government has decided that all fees should be remitted to the KEA in a bid to ensure accountability and transparency in the fee-collection process.
“Beginning this year, admission fees, miscellaneous fees, and skill fees should not be remitted at colleges. Instead, these should be remitted at the KEA,” he said. Earlier ‘miscellaneous fees’ used to vary from college to college ranging between Rs 10,000 and Rs 70,000.
KEA officials had apprised the minister that there was confusion among students and parents on the payment of admission fees due to the provision that existed earlier allowing them to pay the admission fees either directly at the colleges or at the KEA.
Meanwhile, ‘skill fees’ collected from the academic year 2021-22 will be classified into three different slabs, the minister said. “Three slabs of Rs 10,000, Rs 15,000, and Rs 20,000 will be in place for skill-based training from this year. The slab will be fixed after an inspection by the VTU team, after assessing the standard of training facilities,” Ashwathnarayan said.
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