Students raise issue of fees in pvt colleges

Mumbai: Engineering students in the city have raised the issue of high-end fees in private engineering colleges. They have claimed that the colleges are charging exorbitant fees while allotting students under the management quota based on economic abilities instead of their performance and merit.

The students feel that most of the colleges are overcharging despite regulations laid down by the fee regulatory authority (FRA).

A student who did not wish his college or him to be named said, “When I was seeking admission in a college, I was looking for a seat under the open quota. However, I was then placed under the management quota for which I had to pay an additional `50,000 while the regular seat fees were only `45,000. This means I spent around `95,000 just for a year! This is not just me but many of my friends were similarly defrauded by colleges which forced us to seek admission under the management quota for no reason but to make profit for the college.”

Students even claimed that the colleges “boldly” asked for money in the name of donations.

“Donations come to a point where students are hopeless without a seat through general medium like online admissions. Colleges and institutes are not ashamed when they boldly ask for donation money if students want to get admission. Students who don’t have any option go for such ways. If at all, the state government looks into the process of admissions by colleges, or the FRA who is the authority body, such situations could be avoided,” said another student.

“This is unfair for us students when the entire country is looking to the engineering sector. There are barely any schemes or provisions by the Centre and state government for engineering students whi-le there are several of th-em for IIT and PhD stude-nts. Moreover, while the colleges’ promise to give the students the best of best placements by the end of the course, in reality very few companies tu-rn up possibly because of the colleges being not so popular,” said Steve Jac-ob, who did electronic en-gineering two years ago.