A decade-long cat-and-mouse game continues

Hyderabad: ‘Catch us if you can’, is what private colleges have been gleefully telling every government authority in the State and the Centre in what is a cat-and-mouse game going on for the past 10 years. But, the catch is – students have been scratching their heads, not knowing who is the ‘cat’ and which one is the ‘mouse’.

Continuing this annual ritual, this year too, Prof Sriram Venkatesh, Secretary of Telangana Council of Higher Education (TGCHE), shot off a letter to all the vice-chancellors of the state universities, asking to direct the private colleges affiliated with them not to withhold or retain the original certificates of the students on account of non-payment of tuition fees.

The letter on Friday asked the Osmania, Kakatiya, Telangana, Mahatma Gandhi, Satavahana, Palamuru, Telangana Mahila Universities, and Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University and Telangana Mahila University to instruct the affiliated colleges not to withhold original certificates of the students.

The TGCHE secretary said, “It has come to the government’s notice that certain private colleges are withholding the original certificates of students on the pretext of not receiving fee reimbursement from the government.” Speaking to The Hans India, a former vice-chancellor of a prominent state university in Telangana said, "This is not the first time for the universities to receive such letters from the University Grants Commission (UGC), All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), Telangana Council of Higher Education (TGCHE). However, the universities are standing on a weak wicket in this matter. Every V-C knows the issue has been cropping up annually since the state bifurcation. However, the colleges remain defiant and unrelenting."

All that the universities could do was not ask for dues from the students studying in the university departments and their constituent colleges to meet the expenses needed to run the show from the internal resources. The government colleges could also manage since the main component of salary bills is paid by the government.

However, when it comes to private colleges, they have to meet the recurring expenses and clear the salary bills. Besides, it is also important to spend money on conducting events and programmes to stay in competition with other institutions. This makes the universities not act tough against the private colleges.

“Why ask universities? Why cannot the government take action?” asked another VC. Adding, “There is not a single case in which the UGC, AICTE or the State government took the erring colleges to task in the last 10 years. This makes the private colleges take light of such letters.”

The handbook of AICTE and other rules have been communicated to all the universities and colleges since 2018. Neither the apex regulatory authorities like UGC and AICTE nor the state government ever acted tough against any college, even during the worst times in which parents had to face a lot of trouble to clear the fees.

Such letters are just a hogwash. Otherwise, action might have been taken at least one college to set an example. However, the State government does not act and shifts the burden on universities. The state universities themselves are facing a funds crunch on their own. The funds released by the State government are not enough even to meet 50 per cent expenditure of the university, adds a senior official from the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad (JNTUH). Further, what the affiliated colleges pay is one of the fund sources for the universities, he said.