With the state government putting an end to the prolonged suspense over fee structure in engineering colleges by issuing fee orders on Saturday midnight, the focus has now shifted to “fee reimbursement” issue, which will decide the fate of students from socially and economically weaker sections who want to pursue engineering courses. Any ceiling on the amount to be reimbursed is likely to affect thousands of students from these sections as they would be forced to refrain from taking admissions in the best colleges despite securing merit in Eamcet due to higher fees.
However, there are indications from the government that it will fix a ceiling of Rs 35,000 on fee reimbursement in all the colleges. This would mean, students who take admissions in these 578 colleges will get full reimbursement and in the other 67 colleges, in which the fees ranged from Rs 51,800 to Rs 1.05 lakh, the students will have to bear the additional amount over Rs 35,000. This may force students who rely only on fee reimbursement scheme to pursue their studies to opt out of the best colleges. As most of the ministers in the committee are out of town and are expected to return only by Tuesday, the committee is expected to meet on Tuesday to take a decision.
Nearly 80 per cent of the total students who take admissions in engineering courses in Eamcet counselling rely on fee reimbursement scheme to pursue their studies. The state government has been reimbursing the entire fees of Rs 31,000 for all the students irrespective of their caste, if their annual family income falls below Rs 1 lakh since 2009. It was possible because all engineering colleges in the state charged a uniform fee of Rs 31,000 for merit quota seats filled through counselling.
However, the government is no longer in a position to do so this year, as the fees have increased to Rs 35,000 in 578 colleges and for the other 67 colleges, the differential fee ranging from Rs 51,800 to Rs 1.05 lakh has been fixed. The fees in 44 colleges is yet to be decided. The High Court has asked the government to fix fees of Rs 50,200 but the government has decided to file a review petition over this issue on Monday. The committee, earlier this month, had proposed to fix a ceiling of Rs 31,000, but backtracked following severe protests from student organisations and various BC and EBC organisations. It then came out with a fresh ceiling of Rs 35,000.