DNA: Mumbai: Saturday, 05 July 2014.
Sixty out of
64 engineering colleges affiliated to Mumbai University are unfit to function.
These colleges had received temporary affiliation from the varsity a few years
back on condition it must be renewed every year. However, these institutions
continued to function on lapsed affiliation, some dating back to 2008-09.
This shocking
revelations came on June 25 in a reply to an RTI filed by a Mumbai-based NGO,
Citizen Forum For Sanctity in Educational System (CFSES).
Temporary
affiliation is given to those institutes which don't comply with the basic
norms of infrastructure, faculty and occupation certificate as mandated under
varsity rules. Non-renewal of the same indicates the university's extreme
callous approach at the stake of students' career.
The RTI also
reveals that the university, which is supposed to send a local inspection
committee (LIC) to inspect the colleges to confirm whether they are complying
with the norms, didn't bother to send a single LIC to any of the 64 colleges
since 2011-12. In some cases, LIC visited the colleges but no report was
submitted to MU.
For instance,
Vishwaniketan's Institute of Management Entrepreneurship and Engineering
Technology, Khalapur (Raigad), was established in 2013. Despite not receiving
the LIC report, the university approved affiliation to the college.
In another
instance, Watumall Engineering College, Worli, and KJ Somaiya College,
Ghatkopar, were granted temporary affiliation for 2008-09. Anjuman-I-Islam
College of Engineering, Byculla, got a temporary affiliation in 2009-10. There
has been no subsequent LIC visits but these colleges continue to function
without affiliation.
"It's
shocking that 60-65 engineering institutes continue to function without
affiliation for so many years. The Directorate of Technical Education also
allows them to participate in its online admission process and the Shikshan
Shulk Samiti, each year, increases their fees. This not only exposes the
callousness of MU but also indicates a nexus among officials of private
institutes, University and DTE," says Subhash Athawale, a member of CFSES.
According to
varsity rules, the process for granting affiliation starts after the LIC report
is received. It is then placed before the Board of College and University
Development (BUCD) and goes to the academic council. Only if the council gives
a nod, affiliation is granted.
"If
there was no LIC report, what was placed before the BCUD and the academic
council?" said Vaibhav Narawade, professor of a city based engineering
college who is also a member of CFSES.
MU registrar
MA Khan said, "These colleges were not having approval is old news. We
have sent LIC to all colleges during April-May. All LIC reports were placed
before the Academic Council in June, which granted the temporary approval to
all engineering institutes barring five which had come deficiencies."
When told
that the RTI reply which contradicts his claims and states no LIC visited any
engineering colleges and their temporary approval was also not extended after
2011, came on June 25, Khan claimed: "The information officer might have
given wrong information in the RTI reply."
When asked
why University provided temporary affiliation for years rather than insisting
the institutes to go for a permanent one, Khan said, "For permanent
affiliation, colleges have to follow all the norms of infrastructure and must
have approved teachers and principals and have to give Rs5 lakh as fee. For
temporary affiliation, the norms are not so strict and the fee is less,
approximately Rs60,000. Moreover, we can't force colleges to seek a permanent
affiliation."
Interestingly,
as per the RTI, only one engineering college (Vivekanand College of
Engineering, Chembur) under MU has got permanent affiliation.
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