CASH FOR MARKS
Colleges colluded with marks mafia
Many Institutes Affiliated To Anna University Wanted Better Ranks To Ensure High Student Admission
Ram Sundaram & Siddharth Prabhakar | TNN
Colleges colluded with marks mafia
Many Institutes Affiliated To Anna University Wanted Better Ranks To Ensure High Student Admission
Ram Sundaram & Siddharth Prabhakar | TNN
04.08.2018 TIMES OF INDIA
Top non-autonomous engineering colleges affiliated to Anna University were hand in glove with people involved in the cash-formarks racket, say former vice-chancellors. The directorate of vigilance and anti-corruption (DVAC) has busted a scam where it alleged that a group of professors took bribe and rigged marks of students during re-evaluation.
Sources at Anna University said results of students from these topranked colleges were ‘managed’ during re-evaluation. Corroborating this, DVAC sources said they received similar inputs while probing the scam.
The chief executive officer (CEO) of a leading private college in Coimbatore said that brokers, mostly relatives of officials at the Anna University Controller of Examinations (CoE) Cell, and lower-level staff at various regional centres, approached colleges in the western region after the central evaluation of the semester exams were complete.
This, he said, was usually a few days before the university published the rank list of affiliated colleges based on the academic performance of its students. Claiming that they were well connected to the CoE’s office, brokers would say the college’s ranking was too low compared to previous years as many students had failed to pass the exams. “Other colleges in the region had managed to put out a better show, the brokers would say,” the CEO said.
Fearing a drop in admissions in the upcoming academic year, some colleges, including those which were ranked in the top 25, would collect money from students for the re-evaluation and hand it over to the brokers after deducting their commission, the CEO told TOI on condition of anonymity.
Since the students applying for the re-evaluation would have to go through the subject experts in their college, the professors concerned would be kept in the loop to recommend for the re-evaluation process after checking the photocopy, sources added.
DVAC sources said that during investigation they got inputs that central evaluation of students from some ‘top ranked affiliated colleges’ might have been manipulated to bring down their pass percentage. The colleges were then quietly told that the pass percentage could be managed during re-evaluation for a price, sources said.
Besides top colleges, the mafia coerced some mediocre colleges, who secured a rank of 250 to 300 among the 500-odd affiliated colleges, to agree to their demand and send more answer scripts for re-evaluation, said Anna University sources.
E Balagurusamy, former Anna University vice-chancellor, said colleges saw this as an opportunity to boost their performance to stay relevant in the market and were definitely part of the racket. “Some also bargain with brokers over their commission,” he said. “This has been happening since 2007. I caught a lecturer evaluating answer scripts from 12 different subject papers who admitted he awarded marks irrationally based on instructions from higher-ups,” Balagurusamy said.
Chairman of a private engineering college in the suburbs of Chennai said some professors from his college who went to the re-evaluation camps, were asked to leave before re-evaluation of all the answer-scripts allotted to the centre was completed and that the remaining 150 to 200 answer scripts were given to hand-picked evaluators.
The chairman of a private engineering college in Trichy said they had complained about a sudden dip in overall academic performance of colleges soon after Uma, the former CoE, took over. “When we cross-checked with evaluators from colleges in the region, there were gross differences in scores, particularly those of toppers pursuing their final year of BE/BTech. This is because, these students, mostly with a campus placement offer in hand, opt for re-evaluation without a second thought so that their offers don’t get quashed because of a ‘bad’ performance in one or two papers at the fag end of their course,” he added.
Despite repeated attempts, Uma could not be reached for comment. In an earlier interview, she had denied being involved in the scam.
Top non-autonomous engineering colleges affiliated to Anna University were hand in glove with people involved in the cash-formarks racket, say former vice-chancellors. The directorate of vigilance and anti-corruption (DVAC) has busted a scam where it alleged that a group of professors took bribe and rigged marks of students during re-evaluation.
Sources at Anna University said results of students from these topranked colleges were ‘managed’ during re-evaluation. Corroborating this, DVAC sources said they received similar inputs while probing the scam.
The chief executive officer (CEO) of a leading private college in Coimbatore said that brokers, mostly relatives of officials at the Anna University Controller of Examinations (CoE) Cell, and lower-level staff at various regional centres, approached colleges in the western region after the central evaluation of the semester exams were complete.
This, he said, was usually a few days before the university published the rank list of affiliated colleges based on the academic performance of its students. Claiming that they were well connected to the CoE’s office, brokers would say the college’s ranking was too low compared to previous years as many students had failed to pass the exams. “Other colleges in the region had managed to put out a better show, the brokers would say,” the CEO said.
Fearing a drop in admissions in the upcoming academic year, some colleges, including those which were ranked in the top 25, would collect money from students for the re-evaluation and hand it over to the brokers after deducting their commission, the CEO told TOI on condition of anonymity.
Since the students applying for the re-evaluation would have to go through the subject experts in their college, the professors concerned would be kept in the loop to recommend for the re-evaluation process after checking the photocopy, sources added.
DVAC sources said that during investigation they got inputs that central evaluation of students from some ‘top ranked affiliated colleges’ might have been manipulated to bring down their pass percentage. The colleges were then quietly told that the pass percentage could be managed during re-evaluation for a price, sources said.
Besides top colleges, the mafia coerced some mediocre colleges, who secured a rank of 250 to 300 among the 500-odd affiliated colleges, to agree to their demand and send more answer scripts for re-evaluation, said Anna University sources.
E Balagurusamy, former Anna University vice-chancellor, said colleges saw this as an opportunity to boost their performance to stay relevant in the market and were definitely part of the racket. “Some also bargain with brokers over their commission,” he said. “This has been happening since 2007. I caught a lecturer evaluating answer scripts from 12 different subject papers who admitted he awarded marks irrationally based on instructions from higher-ups,” Balagurusamy said.
Chairman of a private engineering college in the suburbs of Chennai said some professors from his college who went to the re-evaluation camps, were asked to leave before re-evaluation of all the answer-scripts allotted to the centre was completed and that the remaining 150 to 200 answer scripts were given to hand-picked evaluators.
The chairman of a private engineering college in Trichy said they had complained about a sudden dip in overall academic performance of colleges soon after Uma, the former CoE, took over. “When we cross-checked with evaluators from colleges in the region, there were gross differences in scores, particularly those of toppers pursuing their final year of BE/BTech. This is because, these students, mostly with a campus placement offer in hand, opt for re-evaluation without a second thought so that their offers don’t get quashed because of a ‘bad’ performance in one or two papers at the fag end of their course,” he added.
Despite repeated attempts, Uma could not be reached for comment. In an earlier interview, she had denied being involved in the scam.
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