UGC, AICTE launch move against fake degrees

UGC, AICTE launch move against fake degrees

Er. Alok Kumar reports :

The two key apex bodies of higher education in the country have launched a tirade against fake institutions and fake degrees in the country and advised the students to beware of mischief makers.

The apex bodies, the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) monitor university education and technical education respectively and feel that education institutions, particularly universities, are resorting to unethical means in the name of resource generation.

The UGC has written to all the universities not to award degrees which are not approved by the Commission.

It has specified 138 degrees and warned the universities not to award a degree not specified in the list.

"A degree not specified by the UGC is not a valid degree", said the UGC letter and

warned them not to award a degree other than the ones specified by the UGC.

The letter said that awarding a degree other than those specified by the UGC is "punishable" under law.

It, however, did not define the punishment.

The universities have been advised to consult the UGC before starting a new course.

The universities should apply to the UGC for the specification of the existing degree if they have not been specified so far, the letter said.

When contacted, the UGC Chairman - Dr Hari Gautam stoutly defended the UGC move and said that the move does not anyway impinge upon university autonomy.

The AICTE has adopted a different strategy and appealed to students to be cautious about the programme they wish to pursue.

An AICTE advertisement issued recently by the Member-Secretary, Dr R S Nirjar "noted with grave concern the recent spate of newspaper advertisements of unapproved technical courses by many institutions" and advised "the public in general and the students in particular....to ensure the bonafide of the courses before seeking admission."

The AICTE advertisement said that "a complete directory of AICTE approved programmes is available on our website www.aicte.ernet.in.

"All aspirants and their parents are hereby advised to verify the status of approval of the technical programmes from our website before seeking admission."

The students have been advised to contact the following regional offices of AICTE :

Ragging News in India, Campaign against Ragging, Ragging Awareness

Ragging in Indian Institutions : http://raggingininstitutes.blogspot.com/

Engineering Education in India: http://engeduindia.blogspot.com/
Management Education in India : http://maneduindia.blogspot.com/
Medical Education in India: http://mededuindia.blogspot.com/
Bluej for ICSE Schools : http://freebluej.blogspot.com/
RIMS Ranchi : http://rimsranchi.blogspot.com/
Trends : http://trendschange.blogspot.com/

http://www.mit.edu/~lrv/writing/Private_Engineering_Education_in_India_Market_Failures_and_Regulatory_Solutions.pdf

Last try to fill Jharkhand tech hub seats

Believe it or not, around 1,320 seats in various engineering colleges, including government and private institutions, in the state are vacant after 12 days of counselling.

Worse, the four private tech cradles in the state have found no takers yet among those clearing the combined entrance test conducted by the Jharkhand Joint Entrance Competitive Examination Board (JJECEB).

The scene is a shade better at the prestigious BIT, Sindri, but not rosy. Of the 680 seats on offer, around 480 have been filled (see chart). Last year, all the seats of the institution were filled up within a week of counselling.
After 12 days of counselling this year (since July 30) for admission to state engineering colleges, JJECEB authorities observed that less than 40 per cent of those clearing the test were turning up for admission.

“Only about 40 per cent of the aspirants called for counselling are turning up. It will be tough to fill the seats in the private engineering colleges this year,” said R.K. Singh, the officer on special duty at JJECEB.

Singh gave two explanations for the lukewarm response to the counselling sessions — Jharkhand students doing well in national-level entrance exams and poor academic standard of private engineering colleges in Jharkhand.

“Local students interested in taking admission in private engineering colleges prefer to go to places like Karnataka, Maharashtra and Orissa, which have institutions of repute. The standard of private engineering colleges in Jharkhand is not very high,” said an academician.

Also, technical education wasn’t getting standardised in Jharkhand as the state government was still tithering over setting up a technical university.

Against this backdrop, JJECEB authorities are contemplating a second round of counselling to fill up seats. As per the actual plan, counselling was supposed to end by August 19.

They are also thinking of doing away with the mandatory eligibility criteria that aspirants have to be state residents for admission in at least private engineering colleges.

Alarmed with the situation, the management bodies of private engineering colleges have decided to hold an independent combined entrance test on August 24, soon after JJECEB counselling ends, under the banner of All India Association of Technical and Professional Institutes.

They would publish the results on September 2, and hold counselling from September 11 on the basis of a merit list.

The eligible candidates are free to apply for this test between August 10 and August 20 at the respective engineering colleges, said sources in private engineering institutes.

All engineering aspirants who appeared in the main test of the state’s combined examination this year would be called for a second round of counselling beginning from September.

Reason: About 996 seats have remained vacant out of 1,700 seats offered by five state engineering colleges, including BIT, Sindri, after the first round of counselling that concluded on August 19.

The Jharkhand Joint Entrance Competitive Examination Board (JJECEB) had called 2,555 students for the first round of counselling.

“For the first time, about 30 seats remained vacant even in government-owned tech institute, BIT, Sindri. Not a single student opted for the Bihar Association-run engineering college in Jamshedpur while only one student opted for Ram Govind Institute of Technology, Koderma.

“Ten students opted for Cambridge Institute of Technology, Tatisilwai (Ranchi).

The lure of RVS College of Engineering and Technology, Jamshedpur was somehow better with 43 students opting for seats there,” said Omprakash Kumar, the board’s administrative officer in charge of counselling.

The problem has its genesis in JJECEB conducting counselling sessions much later (after AIEEE and other state boards). The poor track record of private engineering colleges is also acting as a deterrent.

BIT, Sindri has a total 680 seats followed by RVS College of Engineering and Technology that offers about 360 seats.

The Bihar Association-run engineering college in Jamshedpur, Ramgovind Institute of Technology, Koderma and Cambridge Institute of Technology, Tatisilwai (Ranchi) offers 240 seats each.

Kumar said the board is going to announce dates for the second round of counselling in September in which all — approximately 8,000 — aspirants who appeared in the mains tests of JJECEB (engineering) would be called.
There are chances that many students who have been recommended for admissions in different engineering colleges would opt out, JJECEB sources conceded.

The board has asked engineering colleges to inform it by August 28 whether all students recommended for admission in the first round of counselling had taken admission or not and the number of seats that were vacant.

This year, out of 1,049 general category candidates called for counselling, BIT, Sindri scrutinised 957 students to fill 340 general category seats.

As far as counselling for medical seats is concerned, all 147 seats in three government-run medical colleges were filled during the first round. These include 72 seats in Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS), Ranchi, 38 seats in Pataliputra Medical College and Hospital, Dhanbad and 37 seats in Jamshedpur-based Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College and Hospital (MGMCH).But altogether, 17 seats in the general category remained vacant in Kanke-based veterinary college while counselling for agriculture stream is yet to take place.

GC-AICTE review panel to meet at Gauhati University- GUWAHATI

The high-power UGC-AICTE Review Committee under the chairmanship of Professor Yashpal will be meeting at Gauhati University on October 20 and 21 next when the committee will exchange views with the Vice-Chancellors and other prominent educationists of the North-eastern region and Sikkim on the mandate given to the committee.

Gauhati University has invited all the Vice-Chancellors of the Universities of the region along with a cross-section of former Vice-Chancellors, educationists, Directors of IIT and National Institutes, prominent professors and principals to meet the committee on October 20 at the Phanidhar Datta seminar hall,stated a press release.

It may be noted that the Government of India has been taking steps to implement the recommendations of Sam Pitroda-led National Knowledge Commission for cleaning up the regulatory mechanism in the higher education sector and the Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry has under directions from the Prime Minister’s Office constituted the UGC-AICTE Review Committee to review the country’s two top regulators, the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).

This is the first “review” exercise since the UGC was formed in 1956 and the AICTE in 1987.

Noted physicist and former UGC chairman Prof Yashpal has been asked to head the 25-member panel, and it has invited Cornell University’s Professor of Economics and International Studies, Professor Kaushik Basu, to be on the Committee. The panel has been asked to give its report within a year.

Constituted in February this year, the committee has been given wide-ranging scope, “to review the role of statutory bodies like the UGC and the AICTE in the context of changes in higher, professional and technical education in the country and the demands of a new knowledge economy.”

Defining the scope, the first of the 10 terms of reference says, the panel will “ review the functioning of the UGC and AICTE and critically assess the role of UGC/AICTE and their preparedness to provide institutional leadership to the emerging demands of access, equity, relevance and quality of higher and technical education and the university system.” The directive, issued by HRD Ministry asks for “ review of the provisions of the UGC Act and AICTE Act ”.

The Committee will further look into the role of the UGC in coordinating standards of higher education vis-a-vis the functional role of the other statutory bodies such as AICTE, MCI, DCI, NCI, NCTE, DEC, etc., an assessment of the requirements of autonomy of the UGC vis-a-vis the Central Government and that of the university system vis-a-vis the UGC, the role of the UGC/AICTE in determining and enforcing standards of higher education/ technical education in State Universities and the possibility of introducing a system of incentives and disincentives so that national standards of higher education, technical education are not compromised or diluted, and others.

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