Without single window, arts admission a wild goose chase
Ram.Sundaram@timesgroup.com
Chennai:5.5.2019
The demand for arts and science courses in Tamil Nadu is growing, but colleges continue to flout rules and guidelines as the state government has not implemented a proposal for single-window counselling for these seats.
Not just private self-financing colleges, even government-aided colleges don’t follow rules. Instead of selling a common application for all courses offered by a college (including BSc, BCom and BA) as per the norms, colleges insist that applicants buy separate forms for courses.
Though the government has fixed ₹50 as the maximum fee for application, parents and students are forced to pay ₹200 - ₹500 at colleges which sell multiple forms. Mani, a Chennai student seeking admission to a science course, said, “I’ve applied in six colleges so far. Each college collects ₹100 for BSc (physics) and another ₹100 for chemistry.”
Many colleges don’t follow the government rule that no application fee should be taken from candidates belonging to scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. Colleges were told not to admit students in self-financing stream (evening course) before completing admission for aided sections (morning course). “Though the application fee might look like a small amount, colleges are making lakhs of rupees out of it,” said S Eswaran, who has been campaigning for single-window counselling for arts and science admissions.
There is no standard procedure to ensure transparency in the admission process that involves 3.5 lakh students from 740-odd colleges. “Students, who are not sure about admission prospects, end up paying fees at the college which offers them the seat first. Finally, when they get a seat in a college of their choice, they aren’t in a position to quit as colleges don’t refund the fees. The government authorities haven’t done anything about this,” Eswaran said.
Higher education minister K P Anbalagan, in September 2018, said the government was reviewing a proposal to conduct single-widow system, but there has been no move in this direction. A senior official of the higher education department said the government is busy fixing fees for colleges, and the single-window counselling proposal would be taken up for discussion after that.
There has also been a demand for a university-level counselling as an adhoc arrangement with available resources so that it can be expanded into a state-wide initiative in the coming years.
Ram.Sundaram@timesgroup.com
Chennai:5.5.2019
The demand for arts and science courses in Tamil Nadu is growing, but colleges continue to flout rules and guidelines as the state government has not implemented a proposal for single-window counselling for these seats.
Not just private self-financing colleges, even government-aided colleges don’t follow rules. Instead of selling a common application for all courses offered by a college (including BSc, BCom and BA) as per the norms, colleges insist that applicants buy separate forms for courses.
Though the government has fixed ₹50 as the maximum fee for application, parents and students are forced to pay ₹200 - ₹500 at colleges which sell multiple forms. Mani, a Chennai student seeking admission to a science course, said, “I’ve applied in six colleges so far. Each college collects ₹100 for BSc (physics) and another ₹100 for chemistry.”
Many colleges don’t follow the government rule that no application fee should be taken from candidates belonging to scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. Colleges were told not to admit students in self-financing stream (evening course) before completing admission for aided sections (morning course). “Though the application fee might look like a small amount, colleges are making lakhs of rupees out of it,” said S Eswaran, who has been campaigning for single-window counselling for arts and science admissions.
There is no standard procedure to ensure transparency in the admission process that involves 3.5 lakh students from 740-odd colleges. “Students, who are not sure about admission prospects, end up paying fees at the college which offers them the seat first. Finally, when they get a seat in a college of their choice, they aren’t in a position to quit as colleges don’t refund the fees. The government authorities haven’t done anything about this,” Eswaran said.
Higher education minister K P Anbalagan, in September 2018, said the government was reviewing a proposal to conduct single-widow system, but there has been no move in this direction. A senior official of the higher education department said the government is busy fixing fees for colleges, and the single-window counselling proposal would be taken up for discussion after that.
There has also been a demand for a university-level counselling as an adhoc arrangement with available resources so that it can be expanded into a state-wide initiative in the coming years.
No comments:
Post a Comment