Karnataka orders officials to seal nursing colleges that lack basic amenities.

Karnataka Medical Education Minister Dr Sharan Prakash Patil on Thursday directed officials to conduct inspection and seal the nursing colleges that failed to provide basic infrastructure facilities to its students despite collecting huge fees from them and availing all benefits from the government.
Chairing a meeting with the members of the nursing college managements and medical education department officials at Vikasa Soudha, the minister said he had received numerous complaints over lack of infrastructure in many nursing colleges.
He instructed director of medical education Sujatha Rathore, who also attended the meeting, to inspect and seal those colleges.
Expressing his displeasure against the managements of private colleges, Patil said the government acted soft with the managements of private colleges hoping that they would rectify their mistakes but to no avail.

No Hike In Nursing Course Fees: Karnataka Minister Dr Sharan Prakash Patil.

The department of medical education has rejected demands from nursing college managements to hike fees by 20%, even while Dr Sharan Prakash Patil, minister for medical education, suggested private colleges part with 40% of their seats under govt quota.

Patil said: “If managements provide 40% of seats under govt quota, it will greatly help poor students.” There currently are 35,000 seats in 611 nursing colleges. Currently, managements fill 80% while 20% falls under govt quota

Apart from this, Dr Patil also rejected the demand for a 20 per cent hike in the fees of the nursing college management. On this, he said that while protecting student interests, the fee has been fixed at Rs 10,000 for each student admitted under government quota, Rs 1 lakh under management quota and Rs 1.40 lakh for non-Karnataka students, report ANI.

Meanwhile, the minister suggested the management to make 40 per cent of the seats available under the government quota. There are 35,000 seats available in 611 nursing colleges. The management fills 80 per cent of the seats while 20 per cent of the seats go under the government quota. “If the management provides 40 per cent of the seats under the government quota, then it will greatly help poor students”, Dr Patil requested.

During this, Dr Patil directed the officials to prepare a framework to start the admission process in July instead of September from the current academic year i.e. 2024-25.

Karnataka may relax CET rule this year for nursing admissions.

The Karnataka government is likely to make a one-time exemption to the mandatory Common Entrance Test (CET) criterion for admission into BSc Nursing this year, reports Sruthy Susan Ullas.
According to the plan, seats will be allotted through CET counselling conducted by KEA in two rounds. Seats that remain vacant even after these two rounds of counselling will be left to the colleges to decide, whose managements will then be allowed to admit students based on the eligibility criteria as prescribed by Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences.

Senior officials including Mohammad Mohsin, principal secretary, medical education department and PR Shivaprasad, registrar, Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences attended the meeting.