Thursday, February 04, 2010

• There’s no consensus on key issues relating to engineering college admission process
• Private colleges have also agreed to increase the lateral entry seats from 20 to 25 per cent

Bangalore: Managements of private engineering colleges, which were once unanimous in their demand for a separate admission process, seem to be a bitterly divided lot.

With no common ground in sight, it is likely that the Common Entrance Test, conducted by the Government for Karnataka students, will now be open for students from other States. This decision will give private colleges the option to either hand over their seats to the government’s Karnataka Examinations Authority or go along with the private colleges’ Under Graduate Entrance Test (UGET), conducted by the Consortium of Medical, Engineering and Dental Colleges of Karnataka (COMED-K), representatives of private colleges told presspersons here on Wednesday.

Government representatives, however, refused to comment on the proceedings of the meeting. The Government has been gunning for a single-window admission process for professional colleges.

It has agreed that they will let non-Karnataka students appear for the CET and also allot private quota seats depending on the individual college’s requirements, Chairman of the Forum for Unaided Private Engineering Colleges (FUPEC) B.T. Lakshman, said.

Emerging out of a meeting where no consensus emerged on critical issues related to the engineering college admission process, private college managements presented a rather split opinion on several matters.

While the vice-president of the Karnataka Unaided Private Engineering Colleges Association Panduranga Shetty said that private managements will insist on a fee hike and a “single CET” is not an option, the 55-member-strong FUPEC has shown interest in siding with the Government.
“Let there be healthy competition. What is wrong in letting two agencies conduct admissions and letting private colleges decide what way they wish to go?” Mr. Lakshman asked.

Mr Lakshman’s forum represents the smaller and relatively-newer engineering colleges, which increasingly feel that having a dual-window system lands them with fewer students.

It may be recalled that some 11,000 engineering seats were unfilled.

However, Mr. Panduranga Shetty said that the top colleges wish to retain their independence and hence will not hand over admissions to the government.
Mr. Shetty clarified that maintaining colleges was an expensive affair, and the Sixth Pay Commission scales will further burden the colleges. “So increasing the fee — in any one of the three fee slabs Rs. 15,000 (for poor students), Rs. 25,000 (government quota) and up to Rs. 1.25 lakh (private quota) — is the need of the hour,” he explained.

The private colleges have also agreed to increase the lateral entry seats (open to diploma holders who join in the second year of the course) from 20 to 25 per cent.