The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Ponmudy plays down colleges’ refusal to sign pact on seats

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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Ponmudy plays down colleges’ refusal to sign pact on seats

Special Correspondent

CHENNAI: While the government has ensured that all self-financing engineering colleges will surrender at least 65 per cent of their seats to the government quota, it has backed down on its announcement that college managements will sign a pact on seat allocation, and that it will be mandatory to collect first-year fees through select nationalised banks.

On Thursday, Higher Education Minister K. Ponmudy downplayed the college managements’ refusal to sign an agreement on seat allocation with the government. “They do not want to sign because the matter is sub judice. But what does it matter whether they sign or not so long as they are willing to give the seats? Students will still benefit,” he said.

On Tuesday, he announced that a settlement had been reached after negotiations and a pact would be signed. On Wednesday, the Consortium of Self-Financing Professional, Arts and Science Colleges in Tamil Nadu agreed to the ratio, but refused to sign the agreement.

Apart from the Association, 165 colleges agree to surrender 65 per cent of their seats to the government quota. In fact, 15 colleges have offered a higher percentage of seats to the government quota, adding up to approximately 1000 more seats. At least 25 new colleges still awaiting approval are expected to add a total of 10,000 more seats to the pool of seats available at counselling. There should be a good opportunity for most of the 1.23 lakh applicants to get seats, he said.

On fee collection through banks, the government now says that students will have the choice of paying the fees via banks or directly to colleges. The original plan to make payment through banks mandatory was drafted in response to allegations of excess fee collection. The association objected to it, claiming that some students would not be in a position to pay their fees immediately after counselling and would find it difficult to approach banks for loans before receiving their admission order.

The Minister said instead of making it mandatory, students would be given the option of paying into a bank account, either in Chennai or from their own hometowns, or directly to colleges.

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