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| Edited By: |Source: DNA |Updated: Jun 09, 2011, 12:23 PM IST
Literally, the fuss over fees for medical and engineering courses wouldn’t end until the eleventh hour. Private professional colleges and the state government have scheduled the signing of a conditional agreement for the academic year 2011-2012 at 11am on Thursday, exactly when the first round of Common Entrance Test (CET) counselling begins.
Uncertainty over the fee structure and allotment of seats for government quota has been prevailing for months now, triggering confusion among students and their parents, who still don’t know which college would follow which rule.
Sources, however, said the pact would not differ from the decisions taken on June 2. In a meeting held on June 2, private professional colleges agreed to sign the consensual pact with the state government for medical, dental and engineering courses for the academic year 2011-12.
For the engineering courses, two slabs of fees have been prescribed. One is Rs30,000 and the other, Rs35,000. The colleges, which offer seats to quota students who come through the Common Entrance Test (CET) counselling for Rs30,000, can charge Rs1.25 lakh for their managements seats. Those who provide quota seats for Rs35,000 cannot charge more than ¤1 lakh for management seats.
Besides, the private colleges and the government have agreed on the 45:55 ratio for seat-sharing, where 45% is for government quota and the rest for management seats.
Meanwhile, the private medical colleges agreed to follow the fee structure and seat-sharing formula that was followed last year. For medical courses, the seat-sharing ratio is 40:60 —40% for quota — and the fee is Rs35,000 for government quota seats and ¤3.25 lakh for management onRses. For dental courses, the seat-sharing ratio between the government and private colleges is 20:80 while the fee for quota students remains the same Rs25,000. Each management seat would cost Rs2.30 lakh.
From the government side, secretaries of the state higher education department and medical education department would sign the agreement while Panduranga Shetty would represent engineering colleges and MR Jairam would represent medical and dental colleges.
The pact would be conditional in nature, with the college managements putting forth certain conditions, which were also accepted by the government. They are:
Mutual transfers: Private college managements want the government not to give permission to mutual transfers this year.
Counselling: The counselling should not exceed three rounds.
Deadline: Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA), which conducts the CET, has to complete the entire counselling procedure at least a week before the start of the academic session as directed by the VTU/RGUHS.
Lateral entry: KEA can fill the leftover seats through lateral entry. But the candidates who use it should pay the same fee.
Seats: Private colleges that want to fill all their seats thorough the KEA can do the same. KUPECA can’t restrict that.
KEA officials have confirmed that the CET counselling would begin at 11am on Thursday as planned, with the first session being for the physically-challenged candidates. For the medical seats, the counselling would be conducted from June 20.
Even after the CET results were announced on May 30 and the counselling dates fixed, the hullabaloo continued, with the colleges disagreeing to follow the fee structure prescribed by the government and leaving the people guessing.
Karnataka has 187 engineering colleges and the average number of students enrolled is 300 per college. While the government quota seats would be filled through the CET counselling, the colleges would use the Comed-K rankings for the management seats. This year, as many as 1,07,820 students appeared for the CET that was held on April 27 and 28. Of them, 60,543 candidates are eligible for engineering seats, while the number of students eligible for medical and dental courses is 12,537.
Meanwhile, the Consortium of Medical, Engineering and Dental Colleges of Karnataka (Comed-K) has also announced the results of the Under Graduate Entrance Test (UGET) 2011 that it conducted on May 8. This year, 68,363 students appeared for the UGET. Of them, only 18,131 were from Karnataka.
As many as 42,214 candidates appeared for the engineering entrance test (PCM) and all of them are eligible for engineering seats. Meanwhile, 25,548 students appeared for the medical entrance test (PCB) and only 6,609 candidates of them are eligible for medical seats. Comed-K counselling for medical courses would end by July 31 and for engineering by August 31. The counselling will begin from the first week of July.
Comed-K is eligible to allot seats to 12 medical colleges in the state. In those colleges, about 1,415 seats are available. Of them, 566 seats could be filled through Comed-K (managements), while the rest through NRI quota and government CET. Comed-K is eligible to allot seats to 140 engineering colleges. In toto, 18,137 engineering seats are available for the Comed-K. As many as 26 dental colleges will get 948 seats filled through it.
