Top private engineering colleges want university status

BENGALURU: Top private engineering colleges in Karnataka will turn into private universities in the next few years. In the next five years, most of these colleges will get varsity status and function under the University Grants Commission (UGC). This will drastically reduce the number of government quota seats, which means that engineering aspirants will have to shell out much more for seats since these will now be under management quota.

In the last five years, at least seven private engineering colleges in the state have got private university status. As per information available from the Karnataka State Higher Education Council, there are three more such proposals pending before them.

Once the institute or college receives a private university status, it will be directly affiliated to UGC and engineering seats will be filled by the college by conducting a national-level entrance test.
“Each private university will have it’s own act and if it is mentioned in the act, only then will the state government have a say in the functioning of the university. Even seat sharing is according to the agreement between the university and the government,” a senior official of the higher education department said.

RVCE’S PVT UNIVERSITY BILL PASSED

One of the most sought-after engineering colleges in the state — RV College of Engineering — which fills seats in all branches in the first round of admission, has got private university status. The seats will be filled by the management based on the Common Entrance Test (CET) 2020 results. The Private University Bill of giving university status to RVCE was placed before the legislative council on Thursday and the same was cleared.

However, the management representatives of RVCE said that for the current year they will fill engineering seats through CET only. M K Panduranga Setty, president of Rashtriya Shikshana Samithi Trust which runs various institutions including RVCE said, “This year we will fill the seats through CET but from 2020 the admissions will be done through exams held by individual institutes.”

New private varsities

•  CMR University

•  PES University

•  Reva University

•  Dayananda Sagar University

•  JSS Science and Technology University

•  Adhichunchanagiri University

•  Presidency University

•  RV University

•  NIE University, Mysuru