Panel: hike engineering fee 15% every year

BANGALORE: Professional courses can no longer escape the effects of inflation. Starting this year, the fee meter could start ticking for aspiring engineers and doctors in the state.
The Fee Regulatory Committee headed by Justice (retd) B Padmaraj has recommended up to 15% annual increase in engineering fee until 2015. On an average, the fee for BE courses will increase by around Rs 3,000 per year for engineering colleges, over the next three years.
The committee, which scrutinised the balance sheets of professional colleges over the past three years, while calculating the cost incurred in educating a student, has recommended a maximum fee of Rs 54,000 and minimum fee of Rs 24,000 for BE courses for 2011-12. Six colleges, most of them from Bangalore, will carry a price tag of Rs 51,000. The fee for most of the 200-odd colleges in the state ranges between Rs 25,000 and Rs 35,000. Though the state government has managed to convince the colleges to sign a consensual agreement for this year, the fee panel’s recommendations are valid until 2015.
As most private unaided colleges are yet to implement the recommendations of the 6th Pay Commission, the fee panel has agreed to allow 35% increase in the salary component of the fee for BE courses.