Kochi: The entry of deemed to be universities to the state has ruffled the feathers of both state universities and the self-financing colleges and the latter affiliated to MG University have now come out openly against their entry.
The SF college managers voiced their concern at a recent meeting convened by the MG University over admissions and conduct of courses and examinations. They alleged that when other universities conduct UG and PG admissions by setting conditions in minimum qualification marks, the deemed to be universities were doing it without any criteria.
The recent entry, the Jain University, caused the flutter and according to sources two more deemed to be universities are set to enter the state triggering a fierce competition to enrol students.
The MG University higher-ups have asked the colleges to conform to the academic calendar to complete programmes on time and stick to quality in faculty and other aspects.
The university on its part is ensuring publishing of exam results and starting classes on time.
“The deemed-to-be universities are certain to play gimmicks at the start to attract students and setting an entrance test is part of it. Nobody knows whether there is quality filtering. When they run short of students, they start diluting norms also,” said Dr R. Pragash, convener, MG University Syndicate Exam Standing Committee.
“They also set a 50 internal to 50 external mark sharing whereas in universities it is 25 internal to 75 external. So a student can pass in a deemed to be university by passing just internal exams. There are state universities following 50:50 norm, but there is a minimum pass marks clause in external exams in such universities.”
He said that the unhealthy practises followed by deemed to be universities are set to dilute the standard of higher education since there are no checks on their functioning.
“Even UGC has limitation in interfering in their activities. However, it has to be noted that most of the students passing exams like NET belong to state universities,” he said.
