Colleges refusing to refund fee will face VTU action

Bengaluru: The Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) will act against engineering colleges if they don't refund fees and return documents to students who want to cancel their admission.

Every year, several students who cannot get MBBS seats in the first round get admitted to engineering courses with the hope of getting medical s eats in the final round of CET or ComedK counselling or under the management quota. But when they get MBBS seats, getting back documents and fees paid to engineering colleges becomes a struggle as some managements put their foot down and demand the entire fee for the four-year course before letting them go.

The problem is likely to get s evere this year, given that the admission schedule has been delayed by introduction of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) as the only gateway to private medical colleges. Engineering admissions for CET candidates will be over on July 23 and for ComedK on July 31. NEET results will be out on August and counselling to get MBBS and BDS seats in private colleges will also start in the same month. "We will issue notices to colleges if they inconvenience students. Students can approach us," VTU VC V Sridhar said.

He said this problem is restricted to colleges in tier-II cities and rural areas.

AS Srikanth, chief executive of ComedK, said NEET results are expected on August 17. "Under such circumstances, getting back original documents from engineering colleges will be the responsibility of students and ComedK has no role to play in it."

A officer of the Karnataka Examination Authority said they will write to the government and VTU seeking action against colleges.

"We have a legal cell to handle such issues. From next year, this problem won't arise as there will be one single entrance exam for MBBS and BDS," he added.