KOCHI: He has impeccable credentials - an MPhil and PhD from New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University(JNU), over 15 years’ teaching experience in reputed institutions,including a stint as Head of Department (Economics) at Christ University in Bengaluru, and former director of FISAT Business School.Yet when education entrepreneur Mathew P A decided to set up an arts and science college in a backward region of Kerala after investing considerable amount of time and money - over three years and `2 crore (`7 crore if one considers the value of his five acre property for the institution)- he found permission being denied for the dream project.
The CPM-controlled Kerala University(KU) Syndicate is blocking the process of granting affiliation to Grace International Academy, located at Musavarikunnu, Punalur in Kollam even after a court-appointed commission found the college to be having the required facilities and declared as ‘illegal and unconstitutional’ the government order denying Mathew permission to set up the college.
It is the change of political guard and the incumbent LDF Government’s ensuing policy shift which has come in the way of the academy established by Mathew’s Palakunnathu Foundation.
“The process of setting up the college has been laborious and quite time-consuming. We started the process in August 2015 when we submitted an application to the Kerala University with all the mandatory requirements like title deed for five acres of land in the name of the agency which proposes to run the college, project report, mandatory disclosures and a fee for processing the application,” says Mathew,managing trustee of Palakunnathu Foundation, who is settled in Kochi but decided to set up the college in his native Punalur where no college had been established in the last 50 years.
“It took the varsity several months to scrutinise the documents and dispatch a team of syndicate members to physically inspect the land and vet the records. On the basis of inspection conducted, the varsity usually issues a letter of consent which should have been provided in January 2016. But due to internal problems and Assembly elections it was issued only in July 2016, almost a month after admission process for degree courses in Kerala University began,” said Mathew.
Then the unexpected happened.
A change in government resulted in a change in the new LDF Government’s policy on self-financing colleges(SFC). Due to this, the next step - NOC from the government - did not come.
Next, Mathew approached the High Court which held the college should be given provincial affiliation. The High Court took up the case again after a fortnight and the varsity was asked to submit a valid reason for the continued lack of action. A petition to stay the Single Bench order was also rejected and the HC said the government order denying permission to Grace International Academy was ‘illegal and unconstitutional’. This was challenged before the Division Bench but was again rejected in July 2017.
Jyotikumar Chamakala, Syndicate Member, Kerala University, said Grace International Academy had got a raw deal. “ The colleges which applied for recognition after investing so much should not be affected by a change of policy midway,” he says.
On Tuesday (August 1), as directed by the Kerala High Court, Prasanth B, advocate commissioner, who accompanied the Kerala University team to conduct an inspection of Grace International Academy on July 28 submitted his report. The report, a copy of which is with Express, is appreciative of the facilities being offered to students. “It’s up to the university to respond to the report. We have no objection,” says Mathew.
He said colleges are being established in all the backward areas in Kerala mostly by individuals rather than established players like the SNDP, NSS, Catholic Church etc. Most of us have availed loans to start the colleges without any other outside support.
“If the government is trying to hard sell the state as an investor-friendly destination small measures like granting nod for these will go a long way in helping the cause,” he said.
“An accounting degree like BCom is much in demand because jobs are there for graduates who complete the course,” according to Mathew who said courses proposed to be started are the need of the hour. Allaying fears on the affordability factor,Mathew said the fee structure is fixed by the government,with 50 per cent of the seats allotted through the central allotment process based on merit.
“If the government wants to ensure social equality, allowing these colleges to be established is the way forward since they are going to be set up in backward areas of Kerala and having courses/fees which are affordable to the public,” he says.The plight of Mathew, a first-time education entrepreneur, shows what ails Kerala where 16,000 students are denied admission to arts and commerce streams owing to the unavailability of seats.