Thousands of M Pharm students, studying in various deemed university colleges including NIPER, Hyderabad, may face disqualification by the Pharmacy Council of India (PCI) as these colleges have given admission to 200 to 600 students against the approval of only 18 students per batch.

Keeping in the dark All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), the body which controls higher education in pharmacy in the country, these colleges simply give admission to as many students as possible and give certificates after the course, it is learnt.

As per the norms set by the AICTE, the pharmacy colleges can give admission to a maximum of 18 students, that too with proper faculty, with the ratio of one teacher for every three students. But, throwing all the norms to the winds, these colleges have been giving admission to as many students as possible and charging more than Rs 3 lakh per student, sources said.

Sources also said that thousands of these students, who have been given admission without AICTE permission, are heading for huge trouble as the matter has caught the attention of the PCI. It is learnt that the PCI may disqualify these students which means these students cannot join the colleges as teachers and cannot take up any other job in the absence of PCI's approval, which is mandatory to get jobs.

The norms about the faculty are mostly met by these colleges in its violation rather than its compliance. Several of the colleges are running without proper faculty and other infrastructure necessary to conduct the PG Course. In some of these colleges there are only very few teachers, while they have given admission to hundreds of students, sources said.

Meanwhile, education experts expressed concern on the quality of pharmacy education in the country if the colleges conduct the education in such an environment. What will be the standards of these students when the faculty is in such an abysmal condition, an education expert expressed concern.

One of the major reasons for the situation like this is the dual regulation of pharmacy education in the country. Though AICTE is the regulator of higher pharmacy education in the country, it does not have the infrastructure to verify the compliance of its rules by the colleges.