Though the Directorate of Higher Education uploaded guidelines for admission to Arts and Science colleges in the State on its website nearly a month ahead of admission time, it has not been of much help to students.
A quick visit to the websites of various colleges in the State shows up the violations of guidelines. If the prospectus of one college does not specify the application fee, an autonomous college in the city charges Rs. 100 for application forms for undergraduate aided programmes.
The government stipulates Rs. 25 with an additional Rs. 2 as registration fee per form for general category students.
While some autonomous colleges have only basic information about their institution and do not offer online application facility, others provide a list of courses and make a mention of ‘prescribed fee’ without details of the fee structure.
Members of the Association of University Teachers say the DCE’s exercise is just perfunctory. “Except for changing the GO number and the date, no changes have been incorporated in this year’s guidelines,” says K. Pandiyan, former president, AUT.
Fee revision
For several years now, college professors have been demanding revision of fee structures as has been done for professional courses and matriculation schools. The last time the government constituted a committee to revise the fee structure for arts and science colleges was in 1997.
Plea for panel
The professors also call for a committee, comprising a retired judge and a retired college principal and an independent academician, to audit randomly admissions to at least some of the ‘top-notch’ colleges.
Collegiate education officials, however, said action would be taken against anyone if they received complaints.
But a teacher in an aided college said: “Several years ago, the DCE mooted the idea of setting up complaint boxes in the regional director’s office but nothing came of it even when the boxes were in place.”
Officials say action will be taken on complaints
