The Hindu : Front Page : Private engineering colleges urged to follow 65-35 admission norm

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Saturday, Mar 08, 2008
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Private engineering colleges urged to follow 65-35 admission norm

R.K. Radhakrishnan

Minister hopes engineering admissions will go off smoothly this year

Private college managements want fee hike
He gives conditional assurance

K. Ponmudy

CHENNAI: Higher Education Minister K. Ponmudy has appealed to private engineering colleges to follow the admission norms that were in force last year.

After a protracted legal battle last year, 65 per cent of the seats were given to the government quota and the remaining 35 per cent filled by the college managements. “I hope this year the engineering admissions will go off smoothly,” Mr. Ponmudy told The Hindu. “We have been working on this for the past few weeks.”

He had held extensive discussions with allies of the Democratic Progressive Alliance and representatives of the managements of the colleges. The allies were of the firm view that the number of seats in the government quota should be the same as last year while the managements wanted the government to consider at least a fee increase for students who were admitted in the management quota.

Mr. Ponmudy said the government was willing to consider the demands if they confirmed that they would admit 65 per cent of the students through the State government’s single window counselling system. “They have made a few demands. We can consider them provided they listen to us on this issue,” he said.

Higher Education Department officials were of the view that the government was sympathetic on the question of increasing the fee. This would also mean that the practice of some private engineering colleges providing students a receipt for a lower amount than they had paid would stop.

“If the student is taking a loan for his studies, it would help if the entire amount is shown. This is not the case as we have found out in some cases,” one informed source said.

Mr. Ponmudy warned of severe action against managements that collected fee over and above what was prescribed by the government. He said complaints from students or their parents on fees would be taken seriously by his department.

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