Aspirants from northeast ready to cough up any amount, say ‘admission consultants’ in city
It is easy to assume that Dhanbor Bora belongs to the city, because he claims to know ‘how everything works here’ and speaks in relatively understandable Tamil. An Assamese businessman who is also into real estate back in Guwahati, he spends June, July and August in Chennai and calls himself an ‘admission consultant’. He has printed flyers that read: “Want to study medicine or engineering? The best colleges are waiting for you. Limited seats only.”
Bora plays broker to aspirants from eastern India who come to the State for higher education. He takes care of the whole of the eastern region, he claims.
“The craze for engineering has only begun there. Parents from Assam are usually desperate to secure a seat for their ward and pay without a question,” says the ‘admission consultant’ who started out as a seat broker four years ago.
Ashish and Rajeev Singh, brothers who run Singh Consultants in T. Nagar, are luckier, because they operate from Lucknow that has more engineering aspirants, and ‘fix admissions’ here. “We started with Karnataka but slowly moved to Chennai. There is more scope here as more people want to come here,” says Ashish Singh.
The brokers exploit various advertising media to canvas outside counselling and entrance test venues.
And then begins the negotiations. “Parents or students call us and we make a deal,” says Bora. The preferred destinations are the same every year. For engineering, it is Tamil Nadu (Chennai and Coimbatore), Karnataka (Bangalore, Tumkur and Manipal), Maharashtra (Nagpur and Pune), Orissa, and Sikkim (Sikkim Manipal University). The capitation fee varies depending on the State, cut-off marks, and the broker too.
Students from the south pay the least, followed by those from U.P., Bihar and Jharkhand. Aspirants from the north-eastern States cough up the maximum amount, they say.
So do these students and parents get to meet the college principal as part of the deal? “The principal is in no way related to this. We know some people in the administration and are able to arrange admissions,” says a broker in the city.
Though they claim to charge Rs. 15,000 per seat as brokerage fee, students say it is much more than that, and sometimes crosses Rs. 1 lakh when the season peaks.
“It used to be profitable in the past when there were fewer engineering colleges across the States. Now, a lot of us have shifted to medical colleges, because there is more commission to make, as the seats fetch anything between Rs. 40 lakh and Rs. 64 lakh each,” says Bora.
This year, business was pretty good, say brokers. “The last seats went for Rs. 5 lakh last year. This year, it has started on that note,” says a broker, who handles admissions, exclusively to deemed universities.
There are specialised brokers too. S.B. Murthy, a consultant in Nungambakkam, arranges admissions only for courses in catering. “The demand is less, but there is no competition at all.” He also spends a week on marine engineering admissions.
An SRM University official said complaints had been received from a few parents last year on how they were cheated by some students of the university posing as brokers.
“We caution parents and students against falling for such practices,” he said. To avoid such parallel admission procedures, Hindustan University has made it compulsory for parents and students to be present during all admission procedures.
“The brokers make you wait for many days and then claim that the seats have been filled. We have little choice as there aren’t many seats back home. At least, here, the admission is guaranteed,” says a parent from Bihar, who admitted his son to a deemed university, last year, after paying a donation of Rs. 9 Lakh.
“The broker said the college had a 300 per cent placement record, that is, every student gets three job offers. What more do I want?”
Keywords: Tamil Nadu engineering college admissions, brokers
///The broker said the college had a 300 per cent placement record, that is, every student gets three job offers.///
Unbelievable!!! Brokers are cashing in with ordinary people's innocence.
I'm lost...probably I slept many years and just woke up.
They all refer it as business, When did education become business, unless there is educare, there is no point in this education. I pity my friends who studied very well night and day dreaming of a carrer and ended up with nothing because of huge donations. Sorry friends lets face the reality and see what future has for us. We can shine in any path (turn around time can be more) but atleast we will have peace for us, our parents and the family. GOD BLESS US.
There is no use in crying foul over these things, since, given the history of the legal department in India, nothing can/would be done about this. My suggestion is to make them legal. Just like in the US, you have many agents/agencies handling finances, Visa applications, Security systems, etc., this type of brokery for admissions into professional colleges could be made legal. The fee/commissions could be regulated, so that there is no fleecing and cheating. This can provide employment opportunities, (the brokers can have assistants too!!!) and also regulate the system.
I am sure that every citizen in our country knows the professional seat is for sale in our immoral and corrupted india. Since it is illegal , the college won't take admission directly from the students. They will take the bribe only through agents. Making use of this provision the middlemen is minting and squeesing the middle class. Why can't govt. realises the situation and make it legal so that parents don't need to pay huge sum for these middleman just to avoid the legal problems. They also won't take any white money because everything in these professional admission is illegal. I think it is the right time that our govt. finds some solution and make it legal which is happening any how now.
How true..there are very few Engg and medical Colleges to meet the demands..So naturally they fall easy prey or at the mercy of the brokers..This system has been on since a very long time...they call it the management quota..But Thanks to HINDU cos it is never too late to bring up such issues and attract the attention of such exploitations..
This must be stopped, as these dealers of education are of no use to contemptrary
society. Please, ask your ward to study hard and then secure the seat in good
colleges, by this means only he or she can be a good engineer or doctor, and
speaking of good engineer and doctor, we need them.
What a shocking racket this. Engineering and medical colleges with
admission consultants for a generous fee- Rs.40 lakhs to Rs. 64 lakhs
per seat -for getting candidates from North East. This could not have
gone on without the state closing its eyes. Govt. does not appear to
be taking notice to stop this as is seen by their inaction. Earlier
media reported of how colleges were using student agents for getting
canddates from UP and Bihar and that these student agents had become a
menace to the neighbourhood often creating law and order problem. That
such elements are being used by college authorities show how low their
management have degraded themselves and how greedy they have reduced
the educational level in the state. The only long term answer for
this is to ensure that those states have adequate number of
engineering and medical colleges. This of course is only a long term
hope because the ministers there have other more urgent priorities
to keep themselves rich and in power.
“The broker said the college had a 300 per cent placement record,
that is, every student gets three job offers. What more do I want?”
///Are there people who really believe it??Even in IIT placement is usually less than 80%
great we so far had brokers who did similar business promising students that they can secure admissions in US and UK universities. Now they have newer larger market.
We have laws, we have police and we have media which brings all these out - does really anything that is supposed to happen happen? Nah!
Someone somewhere keeps getting what they get and let whats happening happen! Long live my country!
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