CHENNAI: Mandating a digital academic record depository, linked with a unique identification number for each faculty, will bring down the number of academic frauds, say, experts. Private institutions, particularly engineering colleges, have been caught duplicating faculty for inspection, retaining academic and professional records illegally and employing insufficient or unqualified staff. For example, during a recent inspection conducted by All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) at DJR-CET College in Vijayawada, as many as 20 professors and assistant professors shown by the institution did not work at the college, but at its branches in Hyderabad, instead.
In the State, illegal retention of academic certificates by a private engineering college, allegedly led to the suicide of assistant professor T Vasanthavannan. Also, there is no aggregated data on the number of faculty in private higher educational institutions, making it difficult to deduce quality parameters.
Making verified digital academic records compulsory will drastically improve transparency in the system, said MK Surappa, Vice-Chancellor of Anna University, speaking to Express. “If all certificates are verified and stored with the AICTE and other regulatory bodies, tampering with certificates or duplicating them becomes impossible,” he said.
Even though it is illegal, most self-financed colleges withhold academic certificates claiming that it is easier to submit them for several inspections held each year. “Private colleges primarily use certificates as leverage to prevent faculty from finding other jobs. They use them as a ransom,” said KM Karthik, from the All India Private College Employees Union.
A senior member from Self-Financed Engineering Colleges Association said, “When students sit for placements, they do not have to carry original records. The placement officers will be given their identification codes and they view it online,” he said. Teachers too will benefit from the measures, he added.