Uncertainty ends as private colleges sign consensual agreement

Uncertainty over the admission process for professional courses in Karnataka has been addressed for the academic year 2015-16 with the unaided engineering colleges signing a consensual agreement for seat sharing with the State government on Wednesday.

While, minority medical colleges are all set to sign the agreement on Thursday, the rest of the medical colleges too will sign the same in a few days.

The consensual agreement is a crucial document based on which admissions are conducted for professional courses. By signing this agreement, it would mean that the admission process for professional courses would continue like previous years, based on a seat-sharing formula between the State government and the unaided colleges. On Wednesday, Karnataka Unaided Private Engineering Colleges Association signed this agreement, said M K Panduranga Setty of KUPECA.

The consensual agreement was incorporated in the Karnataka Professional Educational Institutions (Regulation of Admission and Determination of Fee) Act, 2006 following an amendment to the said Act. While the colleges have signed the agreement this year, the choice is open to them to go for differential fee structure next year, a representative of an unaided engineering college management said. Owing to the amendment, the Act now has provision for both consensual agreement and for colleges to conduct their own admissions, monitored by an Admission Overseeing Committee.

Sources told Deccan Herald that the seat ratio between the government and the private college managements, as far as the engineering course is concerned, will remain the same as last year. In a private engineering college, 45 per cent of the seats will be filled through government quota and 30 per cent through Comedk admissions. The rest 25 per cent will be reserved for NRI/ management quota.

However, the seat sharing in medical colleges is yet to be officially confirmed.
The fee for government quota seats in medical colleges has gone up to Rs 55, 000 from Rs 46,000. Medical Education Minister Sharan Prakash Patil told Deccan Herald that the fee will be the same for all medical colleges irrespective of whether they are minority or non minority. The fee for this year for government quota seats has been fixed at Rs 55,000.

There are two slabs for engineering seats. Colleges that agree for Rs 45,000 for government quota seats, will be allowed to charge Rs 1.5 lakh for Comedk seats. Those colleges where the government quota seats are fixed at Rs 50,000, the Comedk seat fee will be
Rs 1.1 lakh.