Students of the National College of Pharmacy under the KMCT Group of Institutions at Manassery in Kozhikode have been on strike since the last three days in protest against what they term ‘fraudulent’ admission to the B.Pharm course without the requisite approval of the university concerned.
Jasmine Abdul Azeez, hailing from a lower middle class family in Kuttiyadi, is one of the 37 B.Pharm undergraduate students at the institute to realise almost a year into her course that admission to the institute was without the approval of the university.
The college had admitted 97 students to the four-year course, though its sanctioned strength was only 60. Unlike many classmates, Ms. Jasmine, however managed to secure an affiliation certificate for the course from the college to avail herself of a bank loan. According to the students, it was when more of them began applying for the certificate that the “truth” began to emerge.
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Ms. Jasmine then realised that even she had been issued a false certificate by the college though the bank had already issued her the first instalment of Rs. 65,000 of her loan.
The students approached the management. After discussions and heated exchanges, the management conceded their “mistake” and gave the students a deadline to secure the university approval for the course. “Though the second deadline ended on April 27, nothing has been done so far,” said N.P. Harish, another student of B.Pharm.
K.M. Navas, college director in a communication sent to newspaper offices here, said the Pharmacy Council of India had issued an order permitting the college to admit 100 students to the course last year. “The All India Council for Technical Education had also approved the course in May 2012. However, the University, (Kerala University of Health Sciences) had delayed the recognition for technical reasons,” said Dr. Navas.
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According to him, the college had also approached the Governor seeking to overrule the “unfair” decision of the university. Vice Chancellor of the Kerala University of Health Sciences K. Mohandas told The Hindu that the governing council of the university had already decided against giving recognition to the admission of these students since they were admitted by the college without the university’s approval.