Private varsities shouldn’t collect excess fees over mandate: Karnataka Examinations Authority | Bengaluru News

Bengaluru: Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) wrote to the higher education department to instruct private universities not to collect fees over and above what Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) has mandated as university fees. KEA, while allotting seats, collects fees fixed by the govt for various categories and university fees fixed by VTU and transfers them to respective colleges. However, several candidates lodged complaints with KEA that some private universities were asking candidates to pay university fees higher than what has been fixed by VTU. “As per the seat matrix, KEA allocates 40% of the govt’s share of seats in private universities, and therefore, only the fees fixed by the govt should be collected from candidates who get allotment in these seats,” said the KEA letter. “Each private university has its own rules. The management of 60% of seats is with respective private universities. However, since the govt’s share of seats is allocated by the authority, university fee in private universities is not applicable to these students,” it said. KEA asked the authorities to issue appropriate directions to universities in the interest of poor and rural students. It also suggested that private colleges’ association get into an agreement with the govt on this.