BENGALURU: Quite a few diploma students who cleared their National Eligibility Test (NET) examinations by the end of 2018 are yet to receive their certificates which would help many students bag jobs as lecturers or make them eligible for scholarships during their PhD programme.
For Shobha (name changed), who received her results in January, the exams conducted by the National Testing Authority (NTA) were smooth, but getting the NET certificate from the University Grants Commission (UGC) has been pure ‘agony’.
“Despite calling up the UGC offices several times, I was not given a reason but was asked to wait ten days. It happened several times till I had to seek external help to expedite the process. Only then did I know that a certain procedure was to be followed by the college.” she said.
Officials from the UGC and Association of Indian Universities (AIU), (the governing body to issue an ‘equivalence certificate’, which works as a stamp of approval for the UGC to issue the NET certificate for a said course) also confirmed to The New Indian Express that the problem was prevalent, more so in Post Graduate Diploma courses in technical colleges, where courses are not accredited by the NBA (National Accreditation Board).
While NBA accreditation needs to be sought by the respective college, it has put students like the likes of Shobha at the mercy of their colleges who take their time to coordinate with the NBA. Another diploma student who had a similar problem said he redid a masters course on a full-time basis to stay clear of any problems that would be caused because of the diploma certificate.
“The only way students would be free of this is if they check the NBA site to know if the course is accredited,” officials added pointing out the laborious system that had come into being only after fake courses began to emerge both in India and abroad.