No fee hike for professional courses, says minister

The State government would not agree to any demand by private colleges to increase the fees for undergraduate professional courses, Medical Education Minister Sharanprakash Patil said here on Friday.

The statement came shortly after a meeting between private colleges and officials of the Higher Education department over fixing the fee structure for professional courses failed to make any headway. It was the first such meeting after the State government decided last month to roll back the implementation of the Karnataka Professional Educational Institutions (Regulation of Admission and Fixation of Fee) Act 2006.

The colleges have, meanwhile, reiterated that they “cannot operate with the present fee structure”. Representatives of the Karnataka Unaided Private Engineering Colleges’ Association (KUPECA) met Patil, R V Deshpande, the Higher Education Minister, and principal secretaries of the respective departments.

Cases pending

They told them that they would not sign the consensual agreement until the agreements pending before the Supreme Court were cleared. In addition, the cases filed by students against the additional fee charged by colleges were pending before courts.

“We are neither here nor there. Unless we know the judgment of the court, we cannot go ahead with the consensual agreement,” M K Panudranga Setty, the secretary of KUPECA, told Deccan Herald, referring to the “fickle” decisions of the government.

Meanwhile, colleges have submitted their audit reports after they were asked to do so a month ago when the government wanted to implement the 2006 Act.