Medical seat matrix unchanged

3 deemed medical universities agree to part with 25 pc seats

The government and managements of private medical colleges on Monday arrived at a consensual agreement at the discussion held in Karnataka Examination Authority.

Accordingly, the government will get 42 pc medical seats in private medical colleges. Medical Education Minister Ramachandra Gowda, said, “The fee structure too would remain the same as that announced last year. The 42 per cent of government quota medical seats will be retained for this year and there will be no fee increase as agreed by the stakeholders”.

Gowda said that a few Deemed Medical Universities have agreed to part with medical seats to the government. “Manipal, Nitte and Yenepoya Universities have agreed to give 25 per cent of medical seats to the government. The representatives of the five other deemed universities too seemed to be convinced about the seat sharing and a consensus will be reached in a couple of days.”  

However, the minister also said that a fee determination committee will be constituted and implemented from next year.

Undecided

Although the decision on medical seat sharing and fee structure was announced after a heated discussion, there was no clarity on the engineering seat matrix and fee structure. The meeting between the government and private college managements failed as the stakeholders could not come to a consensus on engineering seat matrix or fee structure.

The earlier announcement of single uniform Common Entrance Test (CET) drew flak from most managements due to the disparity in the courses, the fee and cost per student that would be incurred by the institutions.

As Srikanth, Principal Secretary of Higher Education  said, “A committee was constituted two days ago to discuss the disparities in fee structure of engineering courses and the possibility of a common CET”. The official committee will be headed by Principal Secretary, with KEA director and administrative officer as it executing members.  

Most private management representatives opined that the single uniform CET  would not be well taken for various factors.

D Jawahar representing PES Group of Institutions argued that there is a difference in the way the Consortium of Medical, Engineering and Dental college- Karnataka (COMEDK) under graduate entrance test is conducted.

Jawahar said, “There is a huge anomaly in the fee structure and if given a chance the private institutions will fill up the 100 per cent seats too. The seat sharing  formula cannot be discussed unless the fee structure for the engineering courses and categories are fixed”.    

A meeting  of the representatives from private unaided engineering colleges and minority institutions will be convened on Wednesday to arrive at a consensus on engineering seat matrix, fee structure and the practicality and possibility of single uniform CET.

Higher Education Minister Aravind Limbavali said that the final announcement of seat matrix and fee structure in both government and private colleges for both medical and engineering courses will announced on February 5.