Colleges flouting pact face disaffiliation: Govt

The Higher Education Department will disaffiliate professional colleges found to be collecting ‘exorbitant’ fees and flouting government guidelines.

“If the colleges indulge in any practice against the consensual agreement with the government, all action will be taken against them, one of which will be disaffiliation,” Rajneesh Goel, Principal Secretary, Higher Education,  said on Tuesday.   

While a few engineering colleges have been allegedly charging more than the prescribed fee, the inaction on the part of the government seems to have encouraged other colleges to indulge in the same practice.

A private pharmacy college in Mangalore is allegedly charging as much as Rs one lakh for a seat got through Common Entrance Test.

Officials at the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences have made it categorically clear that colleges found violating government guidelines on fees will be disaffiliated.

In a new twist to the burning question of extra fees, the government will no longer be publishing its list of colleges which will be allowed to charge extra fees.

Instead, the new one-man committee headed by  former vice chancellor Kuvempu University S K Saidapur, will consider colleges individually.

The panel will start functioning on August 1, according to Goel. 

Seats surrendered

As of 8 pm on Tuesday, as many as 400 seats - engineering and architecture together - were surrendered.

Apart from this, 14 dental seats, four medical seats and six seats in agriculture and allied courses were also returned.

An extended round of counselling for medical seats will also be held after July 31.

The government is waiting for an additional 42 seats to be added to Vijayanagara Institute of Medical Sciences, Bellary, and another seven seats under the all India quota, according to Medical Education Minister, Sharanaprakash Patil. 

An extended counselling for medical, dental and agriculture courses may be held by August 10,  S P Kulkarni, Administrative Officer, KEA, said.

Counselling for courses under the Indian System of Medicine and Homeopathy will most probably be conducted at the end of October, according to an official at RGUHS.