The Karnataka Unaided Private Engineering Colleges’ Association (KUPECA) has sought an increase in fees for students taking admissions in private colleges through the Common Entrance Test (CET) for the upcoming academic year. A proposal was submitted in April 2021 by KUPECA’s technical committee, which was formed to look into matters of revision in fees

Manjunath Bhandary, who heads the technical committee behind the proposal, said that there was no specific percentage hike demanded from the state government. The proposal was submitted in line with the fee structure handbook by the National Fee Fixation Committee, All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). “As per the Union government rules, a maximum of Rs 1,58,000 can be taken for engineering courses. At present, the fees in the state for students joining via CET is only Rs 64,000. Keeping in view the increasing expenditure, the request to consider a hike has been made. We have not blatantly demanded for a 30-40% hike,” he told TNM. The KUPECA proposal highlighted the increasing expenditure of colleges with regard to infrastructural facilities, training and placements, teachers’ salary, and the COVID-19 pandemic situation.

The proposal mentions that the new pupil-teacher ratio of 15:1 introduced by the government requires at least 25% more teachers to be recruited by the private colleges. The starting salary for teachers as per the sixth Central Pay Commision (CPC) was Rs 32,000. This is still being applied in Karnataka, even though the seventh CPC scale starts at Rs 52,000. “When all this is calculated, the salary for teachers to be paid by these colleges goes up by 150-200%. Additionally, with the New Education Policy (NEP), colleges should have skill labs, compulsory placement training and so on. All these factors need to be accounted for,” added Manjunath, who is also the Chairman of Sahyadri College of Engineering and Management. “The common goal is to be able to provide a good education system, but our concerns in terms of running the colleges need to be addressed.”

According to MK Panduranga Setty, KUPECA Chief, the proposal is under negotiation. “The state government is yet to call us for official discussions and we’ll be able to get a clear idea of the course of action following the same,” he said