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THE OPEN, CONTINUOUS and uninterrupted efforts of the Karnataka state government to devolve its obligation to dispense affordable professional (medical, engineering, dentistry, pharmacology, architecture etc) education to youth of the state upon privately promoted colleges on onerous terms and conditions stipulated by it (government), show no signs of slacking.
For over two decades, 45 percent of the annual intake of engineering, 40 percent of medical and 25 percent of dental seats in the state’s 187 private professional colleges, have been cornered by students topping the government’s Common Entrance Test (CET) at rock-bottom annual tuition fees of Rs.41,390 (engineering); Rs.46,000 (medical) and Rs.35,000 (dental).
But following three Supreme Court judgements (T.M.A. Pai Foundation (2002), Islamic Academy (2003) and P.A. Inamdar vs. State of Maharashtra (2005)) which upheld the right of unaided professional education institutes to conduct their own “transparent” merit-based admission processes and levy “reasonable” tuition fees, the state government passed the Karnataka Professional Educational Institutions (Regulation of Admission and Determination of Fee) Act, 2006 (KPEI Act). The Act empowers the state’s private professional colleges to conduct their own “single common entrance test” and stipulates formation of a fees fixation committee to determine the tuition chargeable by each college on the basis of its investment in infrastructure, faculty, facilities etc.
However after passing the Act eight years ago, successive state governments have cold storaged the legislation fearing a sharp increase in tuition fees. Instead it has been arm-twisting private professional colleges to persist with the traditional post-1993 seat sharing agreement while promising to implement the KPEI Act “next year”. But since then the state government has done several about-turns on the issue of implementing the Act. Last December, the Congress government within a week of announcing its intent to implement KPEI Act, did a U-turn after being confronted with loud public protests. Therefore the managements of the state’s private professional colleges are disinclined to trust the government.
Hence at a Karnataka Unaided Private Engineering Colleges Association (KUPECA) meeting held on February 25, they made a 30 percent fee hike the precondition of renewing the traditional seat-sharing agreement. According to them not only have tuition fees payable by CET toppers been stagnant for the past eight years, the state government also regulates the fees chargeable to non-CET students admitted into private professional colleges under the traditional agreement. The tuition fees payable by students qualifying in the COMED-K (Consortium of Medical, Engineering and Dental Colleges-Karnataka) exam (under the seat-sharing agreement COMED-K conducts its own entrance test for admission into the remaining 55 percent engineering, 60 percent medical and 75 percent dental seats available in its 187 member colleges) were fixed by the state government-appointed Rangavittalachar Committee way back in 2006 with a 10 percent upward revision in 2010. Currently, this category of students also pay below-cost-of-provision tuition fees ranging from Rs.1.25 lakh (engineering) to Rs. 3.52 lakh (medical) per year.
“the cross-subsidy scheme which the state government has imposed upon us wherein 45 percent of students pay not even 15 percent of the actual cost of education, and the remainder are also entitled to subsidy, has become intolerable. For instance for dispensing medical education, the average fee we receive per student is a mere Rs.1.87 lakh per year — much below the Rs.7 lakh the state government has admitted to spending in its owned medical colleges. Perpetuation of this fees structure will bankrupt most professional colleges. Since the state government refuses to accept court judgements which have given private professional colleges the right to determine their own admission processes and fees structures, we will press for implementation of the KPEI Act. It will bring an end to this discriminatory fee structure as under the Act the fees fixation committee has to stipulate differential tuition fees for each private professional college,” says Dr. S. Kumar, secretary of COMED-K, and president (medical education) of the Gokula Education Foundation which runs the top-ranked M.S. Ramaiah Medical College in Bangalore.
With the general elections scheduled for May — the timing of which coincides with the professional college admissions season — the Congress state government is unwilling to alter the status quo for fear of eroding its vocal middle class vote bank, which has become accustomed to availing professional education at rock-bottom prices. But at the same time a new determination is discernible in the managements of private professional colleges which are evidently fed up with paying the price of political populism.
Summiya Yasmeen (Bangalore)