Complaints galore against higher education institutions

Hyderabad: AICTE and UGC, the apex regulators of the higher education are flooded with complaints of all sorts, from students, parents, faculty members, civil society organisations and other stakeholders against the higher education institutions.

The violations range from submitting false data, self-assessment reports to manipulations, to obtain approvals and accreditations.

Speaking to The Hans India, a senior AICTE official said, "The Council has been receiving complaints regarding colleges submitting false data on the infrastructure. They include data related to buildings, labs, the number of classrooms etc." It has come to the notice of the Council that some colleges in Telangana do not have even proper building permissions issued by the competent authorities.

Taking a similar view, a top UGC official said that the Commission also received complaints on the higher educational institutions submitting different self-assessment reports to multiple agencies. Like UGC, for recognition of new degrees; AICTE for the course and intake approvals; universities concerned for affiliation and the Fee Regulation Commission (FRC), established in different states.

Similarly, questions are also being raised over the process of the accreditation under the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) and the National Board of Accreditation (NBA). Experience of the Medical Council of India (MCI) and Pharmacy Council of India (PCI) also shows that they are also facing similar troubles, the officials pointed out. The officials pointed out that currently, these issues are on the discussion tables in the wake of clubbing of the apex regulatory authorities against the backdrop of the New Education Policy-2020.

However, sources in the Andhra Pradesh State Council of Higher Education (APSCHE) said that they are already on the job. "The self-assessment reports and claims of the individual colleges and the physical inspection reports of the University Affiliation Committee will be put in the public domain," the sources said.

Giving details of the ongoing efforts an APHEC official said that students, parents, other colleges and the general public can contest and raise objections against the self-assessment and affiliation inspection reports before the State Higher Education Department and the APSCHE. Similarly, objections can also be raised before the AP Higher Education Regulatory and Monitoring Commission (APHER&MC) at the time of fixation of fee reimbursement.

Verification of the HEIs self-assessment reports and inspection reports by the competent authorities by the apex higher education regulatory bodies at the national level through Interoperability of usable data exchange is expected to come into operation in next two years, the sources added.