Limbavali warns fee guzzling colleges

Reacting to the increasing number of complaints being registered by students with regard to private engineering colleges charging excess fee, higher education minister Aravind Limbavali on Monday warned these colleges of stringent action.

“Action will be taken against private engineering colleges that collect excess fee from students who have been allotted seats through the common entrance test (CET). The CET has fixed Rs15,000 as the admission fee for a merit seat for students whose family’s annual income is less than Rs2 lakh, and Rs25,000 for those whose annual income is more than Rs2 lakh. Action will be taken against colleges trying to collect admission fee above this fixed amount,” Limbavali said.

He appealed to students and parents to approach his office in Vidhana Soudha or the Office of the Director of Technical Education to file complaints against any private colleges asking them to pay more than the fee prescribed by the government.
7,000 seats vacant in pvt colleges.

Managements of private engineering colleges are knocking on the doors of the state government to bail them out as over 7,000 seats are left unfilled. With hopes dying for filling these seats, these private managements have requested the government to fill these seats through the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA).

However, the government has put a rider before it extends a helping hand. “We have made it clear that these seats can be allotted through the CET cell only if the private colleges agree to offer these seats at the fee being charged for CET students, that is Rs25,000. Private colleges are charging Rs1.25 lakh for seats being allotted through the consortium of private medical engineering and dental colleges of Karnataka (COMED-K),” Limbavali said.

Talks would be held with private managements only if they agree to offer seats according to the CET fee structure. Apart from the 7,000 seats in private colleges, there are about 1,500 seats yet to be filled through the CET.

Spoken English classes

The state government is all set to help students studying in government and government aided private polytechnics, especially in rural areas, to cross the English barrier. Part time lecturers would be recruited to have Spoken English classes  in the polytechnics.

The decision has been taken in the light of rural students struggling to compete with their urban counterparts due to lack of English language skills. “The Spoken English classes would not only improve their knowledge of the English language, but also raise their confidence level,” Limbavali said.

Meanwhile, the government has also streamlined the salary payment system for staff of aided private engineering colleges and polytechnics by introducing the Electronic Clearance Scheme for their salary payment through banks.