Going by a circular of the Pre-University board this year, all private unaided colleges which are in a majority in the city, are supposed to reserve 50 per cent of their seats for government quota students and carry out admissions on the basis of the cut-off percentage announced. But the reality is very different, complain students, who claim most colleges have thrown these directions to the wind and are announcing any cut-off percentage that suits them. Its the same in degree colleges where merit seats are given to candidates with influence, they allege.
Officers of the PU board too claim that when the government has declared a 95 per cent cut-off for general merit students, those with even 60 per cent are admitted under this quota in some colleges. “In Bengaluru city even the local corporators have their quota in some colleges. Their recommendations are accepted at the cost of merit students who lose out,” they say.
When the PU board tries to intervene based on complaints, it is simply ignored, according to them. “We receive hundreds of complaints every year but if we call the colleges, the receptionists don’t even connect the calls to the principals as these institutions are considered elite,” says one officer. The problem is common in degree colleges too, he adds.
Experts believe centralised counselling is the only way out. “Under the act 50 per cent of seats in both PU and degree colleges are in the government quota. Let the government conduct separate counselling for these seats to avoid doing students any injustice. Bangalore University has done this for its post graduate courses,” points out Dr Sheshadri R.S., an academician.
A PU board officer, however, recalls that centralised counselling had been proposed for degree colleges in eight cities by Mr. Aravind Limbavali, when he was higher education minister, but did not take off. “This year the PU department had decided to hold a similar experiment for admission to first year of the PU course, but the state government didn’t allow it. This is how strong the private colleges’ lobby is,” he says.