Tamil Nadu’s self-financing engineering colleges will ask for a small fee increase.

The Consortium of Self-Financing Professional Arts and Science Institutions in Tamil Nadu, which is a bigger coalition of the state’s engineering colleges, will meet with K Ponmudi, the state’s Higher Education Minister, to propose a fee raise.

P Selvaraj, the consortium’s secretary, told IANS that the state’s self-financing engineering institutions are in dire financial straits, with eight engineering colleges shutting down this year. K Ponmudi has previously stated that Tamil Nadu will not accept the All-India Council for Technical Education’s new cost hikes for engineering degrees (AICTE).

In a statement issued on Friday, Ponmudi said: “In Tamil Nadu, engineering tuition would not be raised. The existing cost will continue to apply.”