The government’s decision to implement the new policy for admission to the engineering and other professional courses from the academic year 2021-22 has triggered disquiet among the managements of the private engineering colleges in the State.
Unlike in the past, when 70% of the seats in the Convener Quota (Category-A) were filled by the government based on the students’ merit and the managements were allowed to fill the remaining 30% under the Management Quota (Category-B), the government now intends to take up the admission process for both the categories.
“A G.O. to this effect was issued in 2012, but it had not been implemented. In 2020, the Higher Education Regulatory and Monitoring Commission had recommended the same, but the government could not go ahead due to lack of preparatory time,” said an official from the AP State Council for Higher Education (APSCHE).
The new admission policy has become a cause for concern for the private engineering colleges, some of which have been accused of fleecing the parents by charging exorbitant fee and donations.
Colleges’ plea
Office-bearers of the Andhra Pradesh Private Engineering Colleges Managements’ Association (APPECMA) have been making representations to the officials of the Department of Higher Education, seeking permission to collect a tuition fee for Category-B seats of up to three times the fee fixed for the Convenor Quota seats.
G.O. No. 12 issued in March last had allowed the institutions to collect for the Management Quota seats a fee of up to two times the fee notified for the Convener Quota seats.
It was, however, superseded by an amendment through a fresh G.O. issued in July that not only withdrew the earlier permission but also substantially brought down the annual fee from the academic year 2020-21.
Additional expenditure
“To impart quality education, we need to attract quality faculty and pay salaries as per the recommendations of the Seventh Pay Commission. We are also required to maintain premium status and secure accreditations of the National Board of Accreditation (NBA), National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) and National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF). This is important to ensure good placements of the students,” said president of the association Choppa Gangi Reddy.
“Special training is imparted to students in coding, languages such as python and data mining, apart from soft skills. We incur an additional expenditure on it,” said M. Sridhar, general secretary of the association.
Asserting that their colleges played an important role in shaping the future of the students, the association leaders urged the government to consider allowing them to charge a fee of up to three times the fee notified for the seats under the Convener Quota.
