HYDERABAD: Engineering seats under management quota are the lowest priced commodity in the state’s educational business scene this year. The management quota seats in engineering colleges are priced lower than the convener quota seats where the fee is about Rs 31,000. Several colleges which used to ‘sell’ their management seats charging a hefty donation of about Rs 7 to 8 lakh per student have slashed their management quota fees to a meager Rs 20,000 to 50,000 per annum as a majority of these seats are left vacant as of now.
While colleges like Shadan Group have come up with advertisements stating that students could pay about Rs 31,000 to take admission in their management seats, others like S V Group of Colleges and Swathi Institute of Technology and Sciences have offered free hostel and transport facilities to attract students. Other colleges which are selling their seats for fees lower than the prescribed Rs 95,000 per annum are CMR, Bharath, Malla Reddy and Gurunanak group of colleges. Some of the colleges, including Younis Sultan College of Engineering, SSIT, Dundigal, Ellanki College, Lingapally and Hasvita Institution are offering their management quota seats for anywhere between Rs 15,000 and Rs 50,000. Interestingly, all these colleges have sent their new tariffs to prospective students via SMSs for fresh enrolments.
The colleges have slashed their fees as about 80,000 seats are left vacant under the convener quota (merit seats) even as the first phase of Eamcet counselling got over this week. Usually, management quota seats that form 30 per cent of the total number of seats (2.81 lakh) in the state get filled if students fail to get admission under convener quota.
Consultants hired by engineering colleges to sell off their seats say that many of the top colleges in the state, including CVSR College, Nallamalla Reddy College and Siddhartha College, the seats of which used to get filled within 10 days of announcement of admissions, are lying vacant even now. “Some of the streams, including IT, mechanical and civil engineering have few takers in these colleges this year,” said a hired consultant of Manikanta Educational Consultancy. The consultancies are also hunting for SC, ST and BC students this year as admitting students from these categories would ensure grants from the state government. “A management quota seat for a regular B Sc degree in a reputed college would range between Rs 40,000 to Rs 55,000. And unlike the engineering college seats the value of these courses have not dipped so drastically,” said an educationist.
Source : TOI