Free engineering seats to be scrapped

There will be no “free seats” in engineering colleges this year. The state has decided to stop AICTE’s “tuition fee waiver scheme” as it has extended the “total fee reimbursement scheme” to all the students, whose annual family income is below Rs 1 lakh.
The AICTE had introduced the scheme for women, economically backward students (annual income less than Rs 2.5 lakh) and physically handicapped meritorious students in 2007.
Last year, about 5,000 students in the state had availed the AICTE’s scheme and secured seats in some of the top engineering colleges.

Under the scheme, any recognised college affiliated to AICTE can voluntarily waiver the tuition fee up to 10 per cent of its sanctioned intake of students. The institution is allowed to admit 10 per cent additional students in the same discipline.
However, the introduction of ‘total fee reimbursement’ scheme by the state government during the last academic year had affected the AICTE’s scheme.

The fee reimbursement scheme was applicable to only reserved quota students from BC, SC, ST, PHC and minorities during the last academic year. But the government has extended the scheme to students from economically backward classes (EBCs) from this year. The officials of higher education department said there was no need to implement AICTE’s scheme as the state has been implementing the fee reimbursement scheme for all the students from this year.
However, students said that with the AICTE’s scheme, EBC families with an income of up to Rs 2.5 lakh per annum could avail the “tuition fee waiver”. But, now only families with an income of below Rs 1 lakh per annum can avail the state government’s “total fee reimbursement scheme”. Several EBC students with income limit in the range of above Rs 1 lakh and below Rs 2.5 lakh will lose the opportunity to pursue engineering courses, they said.

A few EBC unions are planning to meet the Chief Minister, Dr Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy, to urge him to continue the scheme.