JNTUH crossing its limits, cries private colleges

Hyderabad : Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad (JNTUH)'s move to lodge police complaints against the 16 private engineering colleges for allegedly showing professors of other colleges as their own has kicked up yet another controversy.

According to the notice issued by police to the said colleges on a complaint lodged by JNTUH registrar N V Ramana Rao, the 16 private colleges were acquiring affiliation through 'fraudulent manipulative' and 'illegal methods' and were also 'cheating students and the government through collection of tuition fees and fee reimbursement'.

The unprecedented move of the University has led to furore among academicians of the State who termed the development as a blow to the autonomy of the universities.

According to a former registrar of a university, JNTUH authorities had abdicated the responsibility in ensuring that the affiliate colleges meet the required standards.

'JNTUH has the authority and responsibility under the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological Universities Act, 2008 to periodically inspect college affiliated to it and ensure that they meet the prescribed standards of the university and AICTE.

The problems of mapping of professors (showing a single professor as a faculty member of multiple colleges), lack of infrastructure etc are not new in the JNTUH. But the act of choosing to lodge a police complaint is outrageous on the part of the University,' he said.

Member of the Universities Grants Commission (UGC) and former vice-chancellor of JNTUH Prof D N Reddy told that the University did not have authority under the law to file criminal charges against affiliated colleges for not meeting the academic standards.

'The University can disaffiliate the erring colleges and recommend to the AICTE to withdraw its approval to them. If the University authorities feel that a college has fraudulently claimed money under the fee reimbursement scheme, they have to bring it to the notice of the authorities in Finance and Social Welfare departments of the government instead of approaching the police,' Reddy observes.

On the other hand, JNTUH registrar N V Ramana Rao alleges that the colleges in question have been cheating the University and the student by misrepresenting facts and the extreme step had to be taken to safeguard the future of thousands of students.

He says that managements of the colleges against whom FIRs have been registered should challenge the decision in the court if they feel the complaints were unjustified.

However, Ramana Rao fails to answer why complaints have been filed against only 16 colleges while almost all of the engineering colleges, except a top few, are known to be engaging in similar practices.

Also, the question as to how the University arrived at the conclusion that fee reimbursement fraud was involved by taking into consideration only the report of the committee of experts from IIT and BITS Pilani appointed by the Supreme Court last year remains to be answered, as none of the colleges the committee inspected got money under the fee reimbursement scheme as they were disaffiliated.

If the reports that the police asked the University to produce the inspection records of the past 10 years to substantiate its claims that the 16 colleges illegally benefited from the government scheme is anything to go by, experts predict that more rampant corruption and dereliction of duty of existing and past JNTUH top officials would be unearthed.

Meanwhile, the managements of the colleges facing the charges lament the loss of their good faith in the society in addition to being faced with an uncertain future.

The way out
-Implement the disaffiliation decision from next year and give the college managements one more chance to rectify discrepancies, if any
-Bring college managements to the negotiation table and resolve their issues
-Reduce JNTUH administrative burden by splitting it into two
-Ensure that AICTE norms are followed based on actual intake than on sanctioned strength
-Take action against officials who acted arbitrarily so that it sets a precedent

Engineering Colleges in Telangana
-Total: 325
-Private: 305
-Government: 20
-Disaffiliated: 174 (32 courses in 20 colleges finally got affiliation)
-Affiliated: 125 (46 of the colleges had Zero admissions)

Economic Impact
-30% of engineering colleges are winding up voluntarily
-2 lakh current engineering students affected
-1 lakh prospective students have migrated to neighbouring States of AP, TN and Karnataka
-About 50,000 employees will lose jobs
-Revenue loss - 30% of engineering students are migrants from other States
-A major blow to government's skill development programme
-Most of the college managements are first generation entrepreneurs; as such, it would discourage further investments in engineering education