Colleges adopt 'pressure tactics' to work around extra fee ban

In some cases, students turn hostile by withdrawing complaints

Indicating a trend of colleges having gone on the offensive in response to the government’s prohibition of excess fee, the S K Saidapur committee on fee regulation is seeing cases where students have complained about colleges resorting to ‘pressure tactics’ and where students have suddenly turned hostile by withdrawing complaints.

The one-man committee was constituted by the government to monitor the issue of excess fee (in addition to the government prescribed fee) in professional colleges. Based on students’ complaints, the committee is required to help the candidates get the additional fee refunded from the colleges.

This particular complaint by a student of Canara Engineering Collegem Mangalore to the committee is a case in point.

“After paying the extra fees, the personnel in the college office took me to the computer room, opened the website of KEA and asked me to enter username and password. The college officials themselves entered extra fees paid as Rs 9,000 only and closed it without allowing me to report to KEA (about my reporting to the college),” the student alleges.

The student has actually paid a fee of Rs 9,500 for academic and other amenities, Rs 5,000 (optional) for subscription of book bank and Rs 10,000 (optional) subscription for soft skills and placement training (copy of receipts are available with Deccan Herald).

'Witnesses turn hostile'

The Saidapur committee has come across two other cases where the candidates have suddenly withdrawn the complaints against the colleges and have stated that they are “willing to pay the fee for optional services.”

Prof Saidapur said he was disturbed at the turn of events.

“I do not deny the problem. This may, perhaps, point to a larger trend of colleges forcing students into silence. However, what do you when the witnesses turn hostile? The committee cannot act without evidence.” He asked more students to come forward with complaints so that the committee can take action against such colleges.

One drawback in the functioning of the committee is that the students’ identities are not being protected. The committee cannot protect the identity of the students who have complained as the names have to be given to the colleges for them to reimburse the fee, Saidapur said.

He said not every case turned negative for the committee. They have been able to ensure refund in some cases, he stated. He, however, was not able to provide the number for the same at this juncture.

Fee update on website

Meanwhile, the government has stuck to its decision on complete prohibition of additional fee.

“Until the colleges put up the details of fee collected from students on the website and unless we are convinced that they have not charged additional fee, we will not approve the admissions,”principal secretary to the higher education department, Rajneesh Goel, said.

In spite of 10 days having passed after the deadline, only 61 colleges out of the nearly 200 engineering colleges in the State have uploaded details of the fee (www.dte.kar.nic.in).

Moreover, the details put up by the colleges show that many have collected fees other than the government fee, sticking to the decision of the Karnataka Unaided Private Engineering Colleges Association. The government is yet to resolve this deadlock.