Karnataka mulls fee hike for degree, diploma courses

The state government is planning to hike fees for degree, diploma and polytechnic courses for “generating revenue.”

In a recent meeting chaired by principal secretary to the Finance Department, officials had raised the issue of the prevailing fee structure for general degree courses at government colleges, diploma and polytechnic courses. The copy of the proceedings of the meeting, which is with DH reads: “It’s been three years the user's fee for various courses offered by collegiate education and technical education department was raised. With this, accounts officials of both the department have been instructed to get details of current fee and also the comparison of the same with neighbouring states.”

According to the officials from the department of technical education who were present in the meeting, the plan is to increase the revenue for the government. “As the state revenue is hit by floods and farmer loan waiver, the Finance department is conducting meetings with all the departments and discussing options available for revenue generation. The issue was raised with the officials of collegiate and technical education officials in a meeting on October 24,” a source said.

According to officials, the user fee under the categories - Library fee, admission fee, tuition fee, medical examination fee - is expected to go up. Officials from the department of collegiate education confirmed that the fee under the above categories had not been hiked for the last three years.

Meanwhile, the accounts heads of both the departments have been asked to send account details of principals of all government and aided colleges as on September 30, 2019 (closing). “As some fees are remitted directly to government accounts and fees under some heads go to college principals’ account, Finance has department sought details from the principals,” an official said.

Prof S Malleshwarappa, Director, Department of Collegiate Education said that a communication had been received from the Finance department and the information sought was being collated.