Teachers outnumber students in pharma colleges

​Hyderabad: The student to teacher ratio has always been high on the student side but in what can only be termed as ironical, private colleges in the state offering pharmacy have too many teachers for few students. According to sources, after completion of the third round of counselling by the Telangana State Engineering Agriculture and Medical Common Entrance Test – 2018 (TS EAMCET-2018), the initial data points to a drastic fall in enrolment to pharmacy colleges, down to less than 10 per cent of the total intake of seats offered under TS Eamcet-2018.

Speaking to The Hans India, a senior official from the Telangana State Council for Higher Education (TSCHE) said that as per the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), the combined approved intake for postgraduate, undergraduate and diploma courses in the state is around 23,000 for about 150 colleges during 2018-19 academic year.  There are nearly 6,218 faculty members working in these colleges affiliated to the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University-Hyderabad (JNTU-H), Osmania University (OU) Kakatiya University (KU), Palamuru University (PU) and others. Of the total number of colleges, the JNTU-H alone has around 70 colleges affiliated to it. 

A senior official from the JNTU-H said that there had been a wide gap between the total intake and enrolment of students for the last four years. But, this year, the situation has turned worse. Admissions this year were less than 2,000. The colleges should have faculty-student ratio of 1:20. But, given the current admission trends, the student-faculty ratio is around 1:20 in the pharmaceutical colleges in the State. “The state had the highest intake of 35,566 students during 2014-15 academic year and highest number of 12,592 students had enrolled for pharmacy course in government, private, aided and university-run colleges during the same year,” he said. 

From 2014-15 the total intake had come down to 23,352 in 2017-18 with no improvement in the enrolments. Similarly, the number of students passing out is more or less the same.  But, what is making Pharmaceutical Sciences lose their sheen is that the placement ratio of the total passed out candidates is less than 45 per cent. Besides, the students are unhappy over poor wages offered. This is turning tables against the students, a majority of them girls, opting out in search of better opportunities.