Saturday, June 17, 2006 (Thiruvananthapuram):
Fee concerns — The Kerala government says it will not recognise the Combined Entrance Tests (CET) conducted by the consortium of private colleges. At present these medical colleges charge Rs 1.13 lakh per student per year while engineering colleges charge Rs 38,000 per year. The government says these fees should apply to the 50 per cent management quota seats. For the merit seats it says, fees should be slashed to govt college rates of Rs 6000 for engineering students and Rs 12,000 for medical students.
"We are ready to cooperate with the government if they agree to provide us compensation required for running a professional college without losses," said George Paul, Self Financing Medical College Management Association.
"We need enough resources to run the colleges, we need enough resources to expand the colleges and we need resources to put the faculty and pay their salaries," said G P C Nair, Self Financing Medical College Management Association. In spite of the differences between the government and private managements, educational experts believe that the forthcoming legislation would bring some check on the brutal commercialisation of higher education sector in Kerala.