Hyderabad: Fake faculty, manipulation of attendance and ‘store-bought’ projects are some of the irregularities said to be taking place in technical colleges across Telangana. In fact, even the authorities are said to have received complaints from various stakeholders, including some of the well-known ones.
“Fake faculty are one of the major problems plaguing higher education. While on paper colleges have the required faculty, the situation is very different from reality,” said A Santosh Kumar, president of the Telangana Schools Technical Colleges Employees Association, adding that many colleges show faculty of other universities as their own as biometric attendance is not being implemented by all universities in the state.
They also pointed out that regardless of whether a student attends a college or not, almost everyone is given the required attendance to appear for exams. “This problem is more prevalent in autonomous colleges. By charging around Rs 10,000 or so, they give the required attendance. The same goes for mid-semester or other exams,” said Srinivas D, a teacher at a private engineering college on city outskirts.
Students also pointed out that about 90% of them do not do their projects, but buy them from consultants. “I managed to get a project from a company, but my college asked me to do it only from a particular institute in Ameerpet. All the students from our college were sent to the same place and asked to choose a project from a list of topics,” said Pradeep, who did his engineering from one of the city’s colleges.
Faculty in private colleges confirmed that the problem is not confined to engineering colleges, as MBA and MCA students also follow the same. Osmania University (OU) authorities, who have received complaints against over 20 colleges alleging various irregularities, said they have sought an explanation from the colleges.
“The complaints include colleges showing fake faculty in the rolls, tampering with staff pay slips and attendance, among others,” said B Srinagesh, controller of examinations, OU. He pointed out that while some colleges have submitted their version along with the required documents, they are still waiting for others as they have time till Dec 20 to respond.
