The Jawaharlal Nehru Technology University of Hyderabad(JNTU-H) has approved affiliation to only 75 out of 81 colleges under its preview and has rejected affiliations to 6 colleges for not adhering to the norms of upholding quality education in pharmacy colleges across the state.

Since formation of Telangana state, the state government has been taking strict action against erring educational institutional particularly the professional pharmacy and engineering colleges in the state. Out of a total of 150 pharmacy colleges existing prior to formation of Telangana under JNTU-H, now it has fallen to almost half as more than half of the colleges have failed to uphold the stringent quality norms rolled out by the JNTU-H since the past 3 years.

However, the Telangana Pharmacy Colleges Association (TPCA) said that the remaining 6 colleges will also get approval, as they have sought more time to equip their colleges with adequate faculty, laboratories and other infrastructure facilities. “We are expecting the JNTU will also approve its affiliation to the remaining colleges before the commencement of 2nd phase counselling of pharmacy admission,” observed a member of TPCA

“Earlier, quality of education in pharmacy colleges was overlooked and it gave rise to mushrooming of institutions and most of them were marred with lack of faculty, infrastructure facilities and laboratories. Majority of these colleges were commercial oriented and were totally depending on scholarships given by the state government and were siphoning off crores of rupees from the students in the form of scholarships and providing no proper quality education to the students.

Having learned all this, the Telangana government has entrusted JNTU-H to ensure strict rules and regulations to ensure quality of pharmacy education. However, this has impacted on decreasing of number of pharmacy seats in the state, analysed a pharmacy professor, from Palamuru Pharmacy College in Mahabubnagar district.

On the other hand, the Telangana State Council of Higher Education (TSCHE) has advised the students desiring to take new admissions in B. pharm and Pharm D courses in the pharmacy colleges of the state to cross check the approval of these colleges by Pharmacy Council of India (PCI) before getting admitted into pharmacy courses under both convenor and management quota seats.

Earlier, most of these colleges had got approval from All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) and no approval from PCI. But now the state government had made it mandatory to have approval both from JNTU-H and from PCI. “All pharmacy colleges must have approval from Pharmacy Council of India under section 12 of the PCI Act and at the same time they must get affiliated to JNTU-H from this academic year,” said a senior official from JNTU-H.

PCI approval is granted to an institution for the purpose of registration of qualified students form related course of study as a pharmacist, in view of this the TSCHE is stressing its advise to students of pharmacy aspirants to check the list of PCI approval colleges on the official website before taking admissions into pharmacy course in the state.