Shimla: Having violated the set out criteria for admissions into private engineering courses, HP Private Educational Institutions Regulatory Commission (HPPEIRC) has put 5 private universities on notice for having further diluted the merit cut off marks that the government had laid out after providing a onetime relaxation for the ensuing session.
Sources in HPPEIRC revealed that there were about 350 students admitted in these five universities who were falling short of the cut off marks set out as the minimum admission criteria by the government, which has to be enforced by the regulatory commission.
Talking to Hill Post, Mrs Sarojini Thakur, chairperson HPPEIRC said, “Universities which have violated the prescribed admission criteria have been served a show cause notice. They have been asked to explain their positions.”
Largest number of students admitted in violation of admission criteria are said to be done by Baddi University of Science and Technologies, followed by APG University Shimla, Sri Sai University Palampur, Manav Bharti University Solan and Shoolini University, Solan.
All the 5 universities have been asked to present their admission records before the commission tomorrow (3rd September, 2013).
Initially the government had stuck to the criteria that admissions into engineering branches would only take place on the merit acquired in the Joint Engineering Examination (JEE) conducted on an all India level.
Not finding enough students with JEE merit holdings, the private universities had made a presentation to the government for a one-time relaxation.
Under the new guidelines, the private universities were permitted to admit students who had secured 65 % aggregate marks in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics at the 10+2 board examinations conducted by state education boards into engineering courses starting from 2013-14 session.
Under HPPEIRC rules, if there are any violations in admissions, it could attract a penalty of having to foot twice the amount of actual fee charged by the private educational institution from such students.
Manav Bharti, University was imposed Rs 1 crore fine for admission violations in the last academic session and the regulatory commission has already realized the penal amount, said a source in the commission.
Of the 6906 undergraduate program seats approved for 2013-14 by the commission for the 16 private universities in Himachal Pradesh, so far only 3371 seats (nearly 48 %) stand fulfilled.
To make up for the shortfall, where some universities are on the commissions radar from dropping the prescribed admission criteria, others like ICFAI University, Maharishi Markandeshwar University and IEC University, despite a low percentage of admission , have stuck to the norms.
Standing out from the pack, Jaypee University of Information and Technology (JUIT), Waknaghat and Chitkara University, Baddi, which have adopted JEE merit as the benchmark for admitting fresh students are reporting 90 % of seats on offer as filled.
Other than the 16 private universities there are 17 engineering colleges in Himachal Pradesh that are offering courses in various streams.
As Editor, Ravinder Makhaik leads a team of media professionals at Hill Post.
Spanning a career of over two decades in mass communication, as a Documentary Filmmaker, TV journalist, Print Media journalist and with Online & Social Media, he brings with him a vast experience. He lives in Shimla.
