BANGALORE: BJP members in the Assembly urged the government to ensure transparency in common entrance test (CET) counselling and conduct more counselling rounds for the benefit of students.
Speaking during a debate on the demand for grants to the Higher Education Department, former higher education minister Aravind Limbavali said that after the first round of counselling, 158 medical seats fell vacant. He expressed surprise over CET officials offering medical seats to those who had approached the court.
He said engineering seats which fall vacant after students quit to join medicine or other courses go to the management. This can be prevented if more rounds of counselling are held, he added.
The MLA asked the government to start polytechnic colleges in all taluks to help students from poor families.
Limbavali claimed that illegal educational institutes not affiliated to any universities are mushrooming and the distance education system is steeped in corruption.
“There should also be some specific criteria followed in awarding honorary doctorates. Often people manage to get these doctorates by influencing vice-chancellors or governors,” he said.
He urged the government to constitute a board to look after recruitment and construction activities in universities so that vice-chancellors can focus more on academic activities.
Higher Education Minister R V Deshpande said affiliation rules have been changed and experts have been deputed to affiliation committees instead of Syndicate members. However, the Syndicate has the right to go into the details, he said.
When members raised the issue of deemed universities not following the directions of the government, Deshpande said the government has not given clearance to any deemed university. He claimed that the previous government had sent a no-objection certificate to the University Grants Commission to permit deemed universities.