Engg fees likely to go up by 40%

Bengaluru: A fee hike is on the anvil for private engineering, medical and dental colleges. A day after the state government incorporated the consensual agreement in Karnataka Professional Educational Institutions (Regulation of Admission and Determination of Fee) Act, 2006, college representatives held a meeting with higher education minister RV Deshpande on Tuesday. The state government has proposed a fee hike after four years for undergraduate professional courses. According to sources present at the meeting, the government has proposed two annual fee structures for engineering colleges - Rs 45,000 and Rs 50,000. The Rs 45,000 fee will apply to grade A colleges and Rs 50,000 for grade B—for students getting through CET quota. The colleges have been graded according to their infrastructural facilities. The existing annual fee for engineering courses through CET is Rs 36,090. In engineering colleges, 40% of the seats are reserved for government quota, 30% for ComedK and 25% for NRI/management quota Owner of a medical college present at the meeting said for dental seats under CET, the fee has been increased from around Rs 28,000 to Rs 38,000. The existing fee for a dental seat in ComedK is around Rs 2.53 lakh which may go up to Rs 2.65 lakh. Pact with govt today: Official sources told TOI that engineering colleges are likely to sign the consensual agreement with the government on Wednesday and medical colleges may follow suit within a couple of days. However, when a section of reporters approached minister Deshpande on the changes in CET 2006 Act during a tourism development event, he snapped: "This is not a forum to discuss about CET." PROPOSED FEE HIKE ENGINEERING ComedK (grade A college): Rs 1.5 lakh ComedK (grade B college): Rs 1.1 lakh CET (grade A college): Rs 45,000 CET (grade B college): Rs 55,000 MEDICAL CET: Rs 55,000 (up from Rs 46,000) ComedK: Rs 3.8 lakh (up from Rs 3.57 lakh) DENTAL CET: Rs 38,000 (up from Rs 28,000) ComedK: Rs 2.65 lakh (up from Rs 2.53 lakh) (All are yearly fee) -TOI