Majority of pharmacy colleges in Telangana state which are affiliated to Jawaharlal Nehru Technology University (JNTU) in Hyderabad are now planning to shift their affiliation to the newly formed universities at district level such as Telangana University in Nizambad, Palamuru University in Mahabubnagar, Kakatiya University in Warangal, Osmania University in Hyderabad and Mahatma Gandhi University in Nalgonda district.
The main reason for shifting their affiliation from JNTU to other universities is that recently, the JNTU has rolled out stringent regulatory norms for all the pharmacy as well as other engineering and technological colleges as part of its initiative to improve quality of education in all the professional colleges in the state.
According to report submitted by a committee set up by the state government a few years back to study the quality of education in all the professional colleges of pharmacy and technology, it was found that majority of the colleges were flouting norms and they were merely running the colleges without having adequate number of qualified lecturers as per the guidelines. “Majority pharmacy colleges have been flouting norms because of which the quality of education was very low in these colleges. Thousands of pharmacy graduates who are passing out from these colleges were found having no basic knowledge of pharmaceutical sciences. Most of the colleges were appointing fake faculty to teach dummy students, who never attended the classes,” said a senior official of JNTU.
The investigations and inspections by JNTU authorities revealed that most of the students and faculty were just on records and not really present in the colleges. The report also found that in some colleges the management quota seats and the seats allocated for SCs and STs were filled up with students from Northeastern states, whose education qualifications were found fake and all were having fake certificates. The colleges were admitting such students only to usurp the scholarships offered by the government for SC/STs. Having learned about all these anomalies by certain rough college managements, the JNTU has come out with stricter norms with regular inspections to ensure quality education in the pharmacy colleges.
Out of more than 150 pharmacy colleges before two years, now the state is left with only 70 pharmacy colleges. As the JNTU has made it mandatory for the colleges to compulsorily appoint PhDs as professors and Assistant Professors, and has asked them to employ compulsory biometric attendance to both students and faculty which should uploaded to the JNTU website regularly, the colleges are feeling the heat of excess regulation by the JNTU. “The colleges in the districts especially pharmacy colleges could be allowed to shift from JNTU to Kakatiya, Telangana, Palamuru or Mahatma Gandhi University. The government is also in favor of this move and it is expected to boost the revenues of the conventional varsities that are facing a fund crunch,” informed a source in education department.
It is learnt that each pharmacy college is paying an amount of Rs.30 lakh to Rs.1 crore to JNTU depending upon the students intake. “For shifting from JNTU to other universities the colleges must take No Objection Certificate (NOC) from JNTU. There needs to be guidelines framed and we will not act in haste as students interests will be at stake. We came to understand the colleges have come to this decision as they are unable to digest the stringent norms. But wherever they go there is no way the colleges or universities can compromise on the rules for teaching faculty as they are must for quality education,” commented Yadaiah, registrar of JNTU.