The fee structure for engineering courses will remain unchanged in private self-financing colleges this academic year. The government has decided to continue the existing fee pattern despite a section of college managements demanding a considerable fee hike.
While the government inked a seat-sharing agreement with Kerala Self Financing Engineering College Managements’ Association (KSFECMA), it decided to persist with the existing agreement with the Kerala Catholic Engineering College Managements’ Association (KCECMA).
Retaining the existing seat matrix, the Commissioner for Entrance Examinations (CEE) will allot students to 50% of the seats in the colleges on the basis of the rank list prepared in accordance with merit and reservation guidelines, while 35% can be filled by the respective managements and the remaining coming under the NRI quota.
For KSFECMA-affiliated colleges, the annual tuition fee for both lower-income group (25% seats) and other seats (25% seats) that come under the purview of the CEE will be ₹50,000 each. Students belonging to the latter category will additionally incur a yearly special fee of ₹25,000. However, the tuition fee for the naval architecture and ship building course in these colleges will be ₹85,000 each for both groups with those coming in the ‘others’ category requiring to pay an additional ₹50,000 as special fee.
In the case of the 14 colleges represented by KCECMA, a tuition fee of ₹75,000 will be charged from students. Autonomous self-financing engineering colleges too will follow a similar fee structure.
The government rejected a demand raised by the KCECMA to hike the annual fee to ₹95,000. Sources said the government had responded favourably to a proposition to permit a 5% increase, provided the college managements hiked the salaries of their staff. However, the proposal too did not come to fruition.
The annual tuition fee in government, aided, and autonomous aided engineering colleges has been fixed at ₹8,650. Government cost-sharing engineering colleges will adhere to varying fee structures for merit seats with regulated fee.
