10 per cent hike in medical, engineering fees

Fees for undergraduate medical, dental, engineering, and architecture courses from the academic year 2012-13 will go up by 10 per cent but the seat-sharing ratio will remain unchanged, the State Government announced here on Saturday.

The decision was taken at a meeting Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda and officials of the Department of Higher Education had with  the office-bearers of the Consortium of Medical, Engineering, and Dental Colleges of Karnataka (Comed-K).

According to Medical Education Minister S A Ramdas, an increase in the fees of all undergraduate and post-graduate professional courses “is inevitable.” The government will soon sign a consensual agreement with the Comed-K authorities on seat sharing and the fee structure, Ramdas said.

Comed-K represents the Karnataka Private Medical and Dental Colleges’ Association and the Karnataka Unaided Private Engineering Colleges’ Association.

Last year, the government introduced two slabs of fee structure for engineering courses. Private unaided colleges that charged Rs 1 lakh for their management quota seats collected Rs 38,090 (Rs 35,000 tuition fee and Rs 3,090 other fee) for government quota (CET) seats. Now, the government fee will go up by Rs 3,500 and Comed-K fee by Rs 1,12,500.

Institutes that charged Rs 1.25 lakh for their management quota seats collected Rs 33,090 (Rs 30,000 tuition fee and Rs 3,090 other fee) for CET seats last year. Now, the CET seat will be costlier by Rs 3,000 and the management quota seat by Rs 12,500. That is, the government seat will come for Rs 36,090 and the Comed-K seat Rs 1,37,500.

Sources said private colleges wanted an increase of Rs 30,000 per seat of the management quota. The government, however, did not yield to the demand, ostensibly because of the impending elections to the Legislative Assembly.

Pandurang Shetty, Vice-President of the Karnataka Unaided Private Engineering Colleges’ Association, said: “We half-heartedly agreed to the 10 per cent fee hike.”

At the PG level, 33 per cent seats in medical/dental streams will be filled by the government through the Postgraduate Entrance Test (PGET). The remaining 67 per cent of seats will be filled by the entrance test conducted by Comed-K, and through the management quota. At the UG level (MBBS and BDS courses), 40 per cent of the seats will be filled by the Karnataka Examinations Authority through the Common Entrance Test; and the remaining 60 per cent by the Comed-K test and through the management quota, Ramdas added.