The University of Mumbai’s perspective plan for the academic year 2010-2011, which was approved by the varsity’s senate on October 26, has generated considerable excitement within the collegiate community and academic circles in India’s commercial capital (pop.13.5 million). The plan drawn up by a ten- strong committee of academics after several months of deliberation identified the need for 13 colleges in Mumbai city, 18 in the suburbs, 12 in Navi Mumbai, 19 each in the Raigad and Ratnagiri districts, 43 in Thane city and district, and 14 in Sindhudurg. Against this, the university registrar’s office has already received 150 proposals from trusts, societies and private sector education entrepreneurs, soliciting approval to promote affiliated colleges and institutes.
“In December, these proposals will be sent to a review committee, which will study them to assess the background and financial capability of their managements, availability of infra-structure, and recommend whether they are eligible for affiliation,” says K. Venkatramani, registrar of Mumbai University. Promoted in 1857, Mumbai University currently has 354 colleges with an aggregate enrolment of 650,000 students affiliated with it.
While the enthusiasm of educatio-nists in Maharashtra — India’s most industrialised state (pop. 99 million) — is flattering for the administration of Mumbai University, many of whose affiliated colleges have a better market reputation than the parent university degraded by constant interference by the state’s extraordinarily corrupt and meddlesome politicians, the root cause is grossly inadequate higher education capacity countrywide. Currently a mere 10-11 percent of Indian youth in the age group 18-24 are enroled in tertiary institutions. Ditto Maharashtra.
“Undoubtedly the demand for higher education in India and especially in Mumbai is very high,” says Dr. Frazer Mascarenhas, principal of Mumbai’s showpiece St. Xavier’s College (estb. 1868). “But affiliating more colleges under the jurisdiction of Mumbai University is not the answer. The university already has 354 affiliated colleges and institutes and over 650,000 students. This has created a huge administrative workload for Mumbai University, which gives its management precious little time and inclination to focus on academic issues. The appropriate response is to encourage the growth of smaller, more manageable universities.”
Although he declined to elaborate, Mascarenhas has cause for complaint. Currently St. Xavier’s College — repeatedly ranked among the country’s best undergraduate colleges in India Today, Outlook and other magazine surveys — is one of Mumbai Univer-sity’s 350-plus affiliated colleges obliged to follow the varsity’s syllabus and award its degrees. A high-potential proposal to establish a Xavier Univer-sity of India which would affiliate 22 of India’s top Jesuit colleges, including St. Xavier’s, Mumbai, has been pending with the Union HRD ministry for over a decade. “Just recently, the Yash Pal committee endorsed a National Know-ledge Commission proposal to upgrade 1,500 of India’s best colleges into full-fledged universities. If this recommen-dation is accepted by the government, well-established colleges could emerge as hubs of smaller, manageable, well administrated universities with excellent curriculums. This is a preferable alternative to expanding already large universities,” says Mascarenhas.
Such as the Xavier University of India.
Gauri Kitchlu (Mumbai)
Caveat emptor
With India ranked as one of the world’s most corrupt countries by the Berlin-based NGO Transparency International, it’s hardly surprising that worst practices of the big bad world of crooks, racketeers and fraudsters are increasingly permeating the groves of Indian academia. The administration of the University of Pune — often proclaimed as India’s largest varsity with its 587 affiliated colleges and 321 institutes — has realised this rather late in the day. All affiliated institutions will now have to compul-sorily display updated information about their degree, diploma, certificate programmes, and affiliation status on their websites and notice boards. A circular to this effect has been dispatched to all affiliated colleges and institutes by the university’s officiating vice chancellor, Arun Adsool. This is to ensure that the university’s name is not misused by the managements of unaffiliated institutions that often make misleading claims to aspirant students.
This circular has been prompted by the recent arrest of directors of the Pune-based Phoenix Institute of Management and Research (PIMR) for peddling postgraduate business management study programmes claiming that the institute is affiliated to the University of Pune. The issue came to light after one of the institute’s students, Pradeep Kumar Alguram (24), cancelled his admission after becoming aware of the institute’s unaffiliated status.
When the institute’s management refused to refund the fees to Alguram, he registered a complaint with the crime branch of the Pune Police, blowing the lid off the fraud. The PIMR (estb. 2008) management claims to have a large pool of well-qualified and highly accom-plished faculty with strong academic and industry backgrounds and affiliation with the UoP. Crime branch investigations indicate that the institute has rooked 36 students from across the country.
The institute was promoted in June 2008 on rented premises by Dr. Arun Hukum Singh and Dr. Pushpendra Singh, both from Delhi. Later, in its glossy prospectus it offered several study programmes including a postgraduate diploma in management (PGDBM); Master of marketing management (MMM) and a Masters programme in business administration (MBA) at tuition fees of Rs.3-3.30 lakh.
Comments vice chancellor Dr. Adsool: “There should be no opportunity for any institute to make misleading claims of affiliation. Therefore we have asked all affiliated colleges and institutes to follow the Right to Information (RTI) model for displaying course information on notice boards at vantage points on their premises. Institutional notice boards should not only carry information indicating when each course was started, when it was approved by the UoP and the sanctioned student intake, but also photocopies of the clearances given by the university and state government agencies.”
Although the academic community in Pune has welcomed the varsity administration’s belated awakening to false affiliation claims, they express skepticism about its ability to prosecute offending colleges in the hinterland making such claims.
“It’s pertinent to note that the PIMR racket came to light because of a student’s initiative, even though PIMR had advertised its affiliation right on the doorstep of the varsity. The plain truth is that the UoP doesn’t have the personnel or a department studying the media to check false and misleading affiliation claims. Even if UoP has made it mandatory for all institutes to display such information, I am sure that there won’t be any checking to ensure that the colleges comply with this requirement. This will just be another rule on paper,” says Satish Deshpande who lectures in financial management at Pune’s College of Management, Science & Information Technology.
In short, the rule continues to be caveat emptor (buyer beware).
Huned Contractor (Pune)