The counselling sessions in professional colleges do not seem to be the end of anxiety and stress faced by aspiring engineers and their parents.
While they are relieved that counselling is over, parents of children who have gained admission under the merit quota have been bowled over by the high tuition fees prescribed by private colleges affiliated to the university.
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While some private colleges are charging about Rs 60,000 that includes tuition fees and other charges, some others are charging as much as Rs 1.20 lakh.
Prema, whose son was selected under the merit category for the Computer Science course at a private college on the OMR affiliated to the Anna university, said that the fee charged was Rs 55,000 and this included tuition fee and food. ‘We had expected it to go to about Rs 80,000. But we are relieved that the fee is reasonable. We have to spend some more on books, clothes and transport’.
But Anandhan, whose son has also got admitted to a private college on the OMR affiliated to the Anna University under merit for ECE, said ‘It was shocking that the college has prescribed a fee of about Rs 1.50 lakh. It is almost equal to what the fee would amount to in case of a payment quota.
Where is the value for merit then?’ Janani, a student who has got a civil seat said, ‘ I worked hard, so that my marks would help me get placed in a good college. But though my marks were good enough, I could not take up the desired course in the college of my choice, because of the high tuition fee they were charging. I feel that all my efforts have gone futile.’
Raymond who is in-charge of counselling session said, ‘The university has no say in this matter. There are 420 colleges that are affiliated to Anna University, and 41 courses are offered in various fields of engineering.
The university can only recommend these colleges to collect a particular amount as fee and we have recommended Rs 32, 500 for colleges not accredited by the AICTE (All India Council for technical education) and Rs 40,000 for colleges accredited to the AICTE.
However, if the colleges go against it without citing any particular reason, parents can complain about it to the committee that has been formed by the Tamilnadu State Council for Higher Education that operates from the Lady Wellington College Ph No: 2844 5570 or email their problems to tansche_edu@yahoo.co.in.
The Vice-Chairman of the committee Dr A Ramasamy can be contacted at number 28440961 and the secretary of the committee Dr S Bhaskaran at 2844 6486. Parents who feel that they are being ripped off in the name of tuition fees by such colleges can contact these phone numbers,’ he added.
No takers for it
The counselling comes to an end on 10 August and as of now 72,000 seats lie vacant to the various engineering courses. Courses like ECE, Electrical, Mechanical and Civil have been filled up, while IT has found lesser number of takers. A special supplementary counselling is being held on 11 August to help students who have cleared their supplementary exams get into the engineering stream.
