Govt to get rid of uniform fee structure for professional courses

Officially, the state government of Karnataka has decided to do away with a uniform fee structure for engineering, medical and dental courses, effective from next academic year.

Setting in motion the implementation of the Karnataka Professional Education Institutions (Regulation of Admission and Fixation of Fee) Act, 2006, the government, on Monday, conveyed private colleges that there will be no upper limit fixed for fees in private, unaided colleges. However, the fee regulatory committee headed by former Karnataka high court judge Ajit J Gunjal will determine the fee for colleges.

Professional courses without uniformity in fee

The sources revealed that minister of higher education minister RV Deshpande conveyed the same to private colleges at a special meeting at Vikas Soudha on Monday. "The colleges will have to send in their respective fee structure proposal within 31st December. The committee will then grade colleges based on four parameters - infrastructure, coaching, location and course. Based on this assessment, it will decide the amount colleges can charge."

The fees fixed for the coming academic year will remain in force for three consecutive years -2014-2015, 2015-16, and 2016-17. "Also, the fee will remain the same for the entire course. What a student pays in the first year will be the fee he/she will pay for all the four years in case of engineering and five years case of medical courses," sources added.

The government of the state took a step forward as it decides that students getting admissions under reservation category will not have any concession in private colleges, even as they are entitle to subsidized education in government and aided colleges. "From now on, there will only be two categories of colleges, government and aided colleges in the first category and private college in the second. There will not be any discrimination among minority colleges that are unaided," officials said.