Reacting to the Supreme Court's recent order that termed private technical and medical colleges' demand for capitation fees from students illegal and unethical, Union minister of human resource development MM Pallam Raju on Friday said there are certain loopholes in the system due to which the menace of capitation fees stays alive. "Centre is making all efforts to address the problem. Unfortunately, the Prohibition of Unfair Practices in Technical Educational Institutions, Medical Educational Institution and Universities Bill 2010 is pending in the Parliament," said Raju on the sidelines of a function organised by Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University (BBAU).
Maharashtra's first private/self-financed university will start operations from 2014-15 academic session in all likelihood after the government cleared decks for allowing entry of such institutions. It has so far received five proposals which would be treated as separate bills and tabled in the forthcoming assembly session to be held in Nagpur in December. Earlier in April, the state cabinet gave a green signal to model guidelines for opening such universities, thus opening the doors to industries, trusts and societies, to establish a private university on no-profit/loss basis.
The Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER) issued a notification on Tuesday, detailing the process for filling up vacant seats in six private unaided medical and dental colleges, including three in Pune, starting from September 23.
As many as 62 government and private colleges offering diploma in teachers' education (DTEd) have applied for closure due to low demand for the course.
Eighty students from Kashmiri families, who took admission in a Fatehgarh Sahib-based engineering college under the Prime Minister's Special Scholarship Scheme, have alleged that the college duped them and left them in a situation where they cannot even seek admission in another college.
The Admission Supervisory Committee for Professional Colleges has directed the Kerala Private Medical College Management Association (KPMCMA) to cancel all admissions given from outside the qualified rank list of 408 candidates from the entrance examination that was held earlier this year.
The college administration in response said that they were only following Supreme Court’s orders in not revealing the number of seats. Gandhi Medical College is a private medical college affiliated under the ‘autonomous body’, Barkatullah University, Bhopal.
In a bid to keep a track of teachers working in private colleges, Barkatullah University on Saturday decided to issue bio-metric cards from the next academic session.
Private technical and medical colleges demanding capitation fee from students is illegal and unethical, the Supreme Court has said and asked the Centre to make laws to put an end to such practices which deny admission to meritorious financially poor students in those institutions.
For students of a number of private medical colleges, dissecting a cadaver — considered an essential part of training in anatomy — is something they rarely get to do.
Even as private and unaided medical and dental colleges in the state concluded their admission process on Monday, several eligible students did not visit the campuses to avoid chaos. However, when this TOI reporter, posing as a student, contacted three colleges, they claimed that one can secure admissions on Tuesday too.
Two accused arrested for duping about a dozen students mostly from Andhra Pradesh to the tune of Rs 1.35 crore by promising them admission in private medical colleges of the state had roped in an interpreter to interact with the clients in English.
A tug-of-war is on between the government and private engineering colleges yet again over vacant seats. A day after the Department of Technical Education (DTE) stalled the admission approval process citing lack of clarity from the government on filling vacant seats, college managements have written to the government seeking tuition fees for all untaken seats.
Apart from law and order, education and health are perhaps the two areas where a government has the greatest responsibility towards its citizens - in socialist as well as capitalist societies. Unfortunately, in India, we have seen the steady retreat of government as a provider of quality education and healthcare. It is clear that there is no option but for the private sector to step in to bridge the yawning gap in the number of schools, colleges and hospitals.
The Gujarat industries department signed Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) with private enterprises today to set up five centres of excellence in three universities and two industrial training institutes (ITIs) in the state, a statement issued by the Gujarat state government said.