Fees in engineering colleges that were found to be deficient in terms of infrastructure and faculty will be cut next year.The fees in many engineering colleges across the state are set to be reduced next year. The task forces — constituted by the state government to inspect colleges — found deficiencies in faculty and infrastructure facilities being offered by the colleges.

This makes them ‘ineligible’ to claim such fees as exist. The task force is expected to recommend reduction of fees in such colleges to the Admissions and Fee Regulatory Committee for 2013-14. It was found that faculty in the majority of the colleges was “underpaid” and managements were recruiting faculty members in violation of the norms prescribed by the AICTE by hiring fresh B.Tech graduates.

Last year, a majority of the engineering colleges claimed a fee increase from `31,000 to `35,000 per annum (amounting to more than a 15 per cent
hike) citing AICTE pay scales for faculty and expenditure on infrastructure facilities.

Out of 680 private engineering colleges in the state, nearly 600 colleges claimed fees of `35,000 while the remaining sought differential fees ranging from `50,000 to `1.05 lakh. The government was forced to heed to their demand as there was no time to verify those claims. However, the government began inspection of colleges to verify those claims after the admissions process concluded. The inspections are expected to be completed by month-end.