Submission of course-college options delayed

[sajiv]

Submission of course-college options delayed

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The delay on Tuesday in finalising the fee in government-controlled self-financing engineering and medical colleges stalled the opening of the web site ( http://www.cee.kerala.gov.in/keam), where students were to register their course-college options.

The Commissioner for Entrance Examinations had on Monday announced that the web site would be operational from 1 p.m. on Tuesday. However, till late afternoon, the CEE's office did not get the Government Order containing the fee structure for engineering and medical courses in private self-financing colleges.

Only unofficial details of the fee structure were emailed to the CEE's office.

All this led to a lot of confusion at the colleges that were to act as option facilitation centres and helpdesks to assist students in registering course-college options.

Some students who came to these institutions went back after unsuccessfully trying to access the site.

The details of the fee for engineering and medical courses and the list of colleges were posted in the web site cee-kerala.org late in the night. The web site was opened for submitting options at 12.40 a.m. on Wednesday.

The fee for government MBBS seats in the self-financing medical colleges run by the Academy of Medical Sciences, Pariyaram, and by the Cooperative Academy of Professional Education, Kochi, will be Rs.90,000.

For BPL candidates, the fee will be Rs.25,000. If there are no BPL candidates, 10 candidates with the lowest annual family income will get to study for this fee. (In private self-financing medical colleges only seven candidates will get this fee concession.) For SEBC candidates, the fee will be Rs.40,000.

In the management quota, the fee will range from Rs.4.35 lakh to Rs.4.71 lakh. In the NRI quota, the fee will be Rs.10 lakh.

For the BDS course at the Dental College at Pariyaram, the fee for BPL candidates will be Rs.23,000. For SEBC candidates, the fee will be Rs.39,000 and for others, Rs.88,000. In the management quota, the fee will be Rs.2.8 lakh. For the NRI quota, the fee will range from Rs.3 lakh to Rs.3.5 lakh.

Agreements to this effect were signed between the government and the colleges here on Tuesday night.

In government-controlled self-financing engineering colleges, the fee in government seats will be Rs.25,000, while the fee in the management quota is Rs.65,000.

The fee for these colleges were finalised after two rounds of discussions between Education Minister M.A. Baby and Cooperation Minister G. Sudhakaran.