Extra students in 2nd yr points to cash-for-seats scam at AU
Docus Show ‘Suspected Students’ Pursuing Most Sought-After Courses
Ram.Sundaram@timesgroup.com
Chennai 14.08.2018
: After the cash-for marks expose, it could well be a cash-for-seats scam at Anna University.
More than 60 students, whose names were not present in the final admission list last year, are attending second year classes in College of Engineering, Guindy (CEG) which is ranked first in Tamil Nadu among state-run technical institutions. Insiders say this points to a probable scam of inducting ineligible students through the backdoor.
These students couldn’t have made a legal lateral entry as the university rules make no provision to admit diploma students directly into the second year. Documents show these ‘suspect students’ are pursuing some of the most sought-after courses like electronic and communication engineering (ECE) and electrical and electronics engineering (EEE) for which only students who score more than 190 out of 200 in science and maths in their board exams qualify.
In 2017, medical counselling was conducted only after engineering counselling ended because of the uncertainty over NEET. Many students who got medical seats withdrew from the engineering course, leaving seats vacant. Courts had directed Anna University not to fill these seats, and set August 30 as the deadline to complete the admission process.
‘Seats in colleges were being sold, some top authorities involved’
Chennai: “We got credible information from within the university that seats in top colleges were being sold for cash, and some top authorities were involved in this,” said a source. The source filed an RTI petition on October seeking the number of students who got admitted in CEG before and after medical counselling.
The reply from CEG dean T V Geetha said 167 students withdrew from the college after medical counselling. “There were discrepancies when we compared the final list of students admitted in four streams of CEG – ECE, EEE, manufacturing engineering and mining engineering – with the present attendance register,” the source told TOI.
Sixty-four names, which were not in the final admission list given by the dean through RTI in October 2017, are now present in the second-year attendance register. Nobody seems to know under which quota these students were admitted as lateral entry seats are not available in CEG.
The register number of these students start with 2017, indicating they joined the college last year. Register numbers are allotted to students in the alphabetical order. The questionable admissions are clearly out of sync with the original admission list. This is apparent as alphabetical order is not followed after the last name of the original admission list.
For instance, of the total 28 mining engineering students, names of only 23 students feature in the original admission list. The last name in this list begins with the alphabet ‘T’. A student’s name begins with ‘A’, but appears in the register after ‘T’.
When contacted, Anna University vice-chancellor MK Surappa said he would look into the issue after confirming the veracity of the documents. University admissions director G Nagarajan said nearly 20 % of the seats are filled through quotas for other states, NRIs, foreign countries and consortium of industries. “Only the dean can answer other queries on admission,” he said. The dean was unavailable for a comment.
Docus Show ‘Suspected Students’ Pursuing Most Sought-After Courses
Ram.Sundaram@timesgroup.com
Chennai 14.08.2018
: After the cash-for marks expose, it could well be a cash-for-seats scam at Anna University.
More than 60 students, whose names were not present in the final admission list last year, are attending second year classes in College of Engineering, Guindy (CEG) which is ranked first in Tamil Nadu among state-run technical institutions. Insiders say this points to a probable scam of inducting ineligible students through the backdoor.
These students couldn’t have made a legal lateral entry as the university rules make no provision to admit diploma students directly into the second year. Documents show these ‘suspect students’ are pursuing some of the most sought-after courses like electronic and communication engineering (ECE) and electrical and electronics engineering (EEE) for which only students who score more than 190 out of 200 in science and maths in their board exams qualify.
In 2017, medical counselling was conducted only after engineering counselling ended because of the uncertainty over NEET. Many students who got medical seats withdrew from the engineering course, leaving seats vacant. Courts had directed Anna University not to fill these seats, and set August 30 as the deadline to complete the admission process.
‘Seats in colleges were being sold, some top authorities involved’
Chennai: “We got credible information from within the university that seats in top colleges were being sold for cash, and some top authorities were involved in this,” said a source. The source filed an RTI petition on October seeking the number of students who got admitted in CEG before and after medical counselling.
The reply from CEG dean T V Geetha said 167 students withdrew from the college after medical counselling. “There were discrepancies when we compared the final list of students admitted in four streams of CEG – ECE, EEE, manufacturing engineering and mining engineering – with the present attendance register,” the source told TOI.
Sixty-four names, which were not in the final admission list given by the dean through RTI in October 2017, are now present in the second-year attendance register. Nobody seems to know under which quota these students were admitted as lateral entry seats are not available in CEG.
The register number of these students start with 2017, indicating they joined the college last year. Register numbers are allotted to students in the alphabetical order. The questionable admissions are clearly out of sync with the original admission list. This is apparent as alphabetical order is not followed after the last name of the original admission list.
For instance, of the total 28 mining engineering students, names of only 23 students feature in the original admission list. The last name in this list begins with the alphabet ‘T’. A student’s name begins with ‘A’, but appears in the register after ‘T’.
When contacted, Anna University vice-chancellor MK Surappa said he would look into the issue after confirming the veracity of the documents. University admissions director G Nagarajan said nearly 20 % of the seats are filled through quotas for other states, NRIs, foreign countries and consortium of industries. “Only the dean can answer other queries on admission,” he said. The dean was unavailable for a comment.
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