HYDERABAD: The future of ten students, some of whom are foreign nationals from the Middle East and Africa, at Al Habeeb College of Engineering and Technology (AHCET) hangs in the balance. The students of petroleum engineering are left in the lurch as the college management and Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University-Hyderabad (JNTU-H) are involved in a blame game.
The ten students had taken admission in 2015-16 academic year. They were not promoted to second year as they did not meet the criterion of securing 28 credits in the first year. The same year, they appeared for the supplementary examination and yet could not clear it.
They took the supplementary examination again this year and cleared them.However, the students are being told by their college now that they need to drop out of the course as the college did not get JNTU-H affiliation this year for the petroleum engineering course and cannot hold second-year classes for the same.
Speaking to Express, one of the students said, “We got the required number of credits. While Indian students paid the fee of about `1 lakh for first year, some foreign students paid about `2 lakh. After investing two years’ time and so much money, dropping out of the course will ruin our future.”
When contacted, Dr V Kamakshi Prasad, director of evaluation, JNTU-H, said, “The university is ready to help the students. Although the college will not be allowed to admit new students for the course, the university will give it permission to conduct classes and allow the students to sit for internal and external examinations. However, the college has to approach us and give details of how many students are on the rolls and also coordinate with other colleges which are suffering a similar problem.”
One other option for students is to seek admission to second-year Petroleum Engineering course in any other JNTU-H affiliated college.However, none of the colleges offering Petroleum Engineering was granted affiliation for the course by JNTU-H this year.