Date:24/05/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/05/24/stories/2007052418670100.htm

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End in sight to admission row

Staff Reporter

Final decision on fee structure in engineering colleges at Saturday's meet

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM : The broad contours of a formula for this year's admissions to private self-financing engineering colleges appeared to have taken shape in Wednesday's talks between Education Minister M.A. Baby and president of the association of managements of private self-financing colleges G.P.C. Nayar. "I see light at the end of the tunnel," Education Minister M.A. Baby told The Hindu after the discussions.

While the managements made out a case for charging a higher fee in the government quota of 50 per cent seats, the Government appeared keen on the argument that the fee for the 50 per cent management quota cannot be hiked beyond a point.

Based on the 50:50 seat-sharing formula, a final decision on the fee structure in both categories of seats may be taken at the next meeting on Saturday.

According to Mr. Nayar, the managements requested that the fee for the 50 per cent Government seats be fixed at around Rs.25,000. "For the management seats the fee may be different for different colleges. We should get enough money to run our colleges. All the same the Government fee of Rs.6,000 is unrealistic in any formula."

Mr. Baby said that engineering seats were available in Tamil Nadu in the Rs. 35,000-45,000 range.

"The managements fear that if the fee in their seats is higher than this, then the students may go away. They also said that if the fee in the Government seats is very low then the fee in the management seats has to be much higher. We have told them that we will keep all this in mind before a final decision is taken. Other than medical, dental and engineering courses, cross-subsidising fee appears unreal istic for the other professional courses. There the admissions can be regulated. The Inter-Church Council has taken a position on this issue. Various managements have said they need to consult church leaders," he said.

With Ministers N.K. Premachandran and T.U. Kuruvilla, Mr. Baby held talks in Kollam with leaders of the Inter-Church Council. Following the talks, Mr. Baby told presspersons that the discussions paved the way for an amicable settlement.