Reshma Ravishanker
Higher Educational Institutions across Karnataka cannot charge a relative placement fee for students, S R Umashankar, Additional Chief Secretary to Government, Higher Education Department.
Speaking on the sidelines of an event in Bengaluru, Umashankar said that while it is acceptable for colleges to charge a certain fee under the ‘placement fee’ category, it cannot be based on their job offers.
Umashankar said that if such incidents are brought to the notice of the department, action would be taken against such institutions.
“Colleges charge employment-related fees under categories of skill development. Typically, this is charged when a supplementary course or training is offered. The other category is that of placement cell fee. This must be nominal and cannot be based on the job offers students get. It must be uniform,” he added.
This comes in the wake of some graduates starting a discussion chain on a social media platform over how they were expected to pay a certain portion of their first month’s CTC on availing a job as placement fee.
In one such case, an engineering college in Bengaluru was accused of charging students 2.5% of their Cost to Company component of the salary as their placement cell fee.
The graduate also alleged that this was not mentioned at the time of admission or specified in the fee receipt. However, the private college had threatened him that if he would not pay a portion of the CTC, his original certificates and documents would be withheld.
After the discussion went viral, some other students also alleged that their placement fee would be dependent on the number of offers they have availed from companies.
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