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Professional courses: seat allotment begins today

Deepa Kurup

Regulatory bodies yet to renew approval for many colleges

BANGALORE: The seat allotment procedure for admissions to government and private professional colleges in the State will start on Thursday. But with regulatory bodies yet to renew approval for many colleges, it will be a truncated list of institutions that will constitute the current seat matrix.

Starting the first round without all colleges on board is bound to prolong the agony and increase confusion among students and parents, who will have to wait for the second (or the casual vacancy) round to make their final choice. As of Wednesday evening, there are about 1,065 medical government quota seats on offer in 12 medical colleges, compared to 1,817 seats in 2008.

In fact, only four out of 10 government medical colleges are listed. All six medical colleges started by the Government in 2006 have failed to obtain clearance from the Medical Council of India (MCI), though its website states “permitted for 2008-2009”. MCI sources told The Hindu that these colleges did not pass muster in the first round of inspections this year and the final verdict is awaited.

Surfaced later

Even in 2008, these colleges did not figure in the first round and later surfaced in the casual vacancy round. The MCI extended recognition for an additional year (2008-2009) at the last minute. “In Karnataka, the admission process begins much before other States, and such haste results in confusion. If six out of 10 government colleges have not been cleared, then why go ahead with admissions and confuse the hapless student,” asked an official who did not want to be named.

The controversial B.R. Ambedkar Medical College in Bangalore, which has been on the “de-recognised list” for over four years now, is also omitted. According to the MCI website, “the Union Government has directed the institute not to admit students for the academic year 2008-2009”.

Interim order

S. Kumar, executive secretary of COMED-K, says that students must know the recognition and affiliation status before admission. “This college has to sort things out or else we refuse to take the risk of conducting their admissions.” The consortium had earlier declined to include this college in its PG admission process. An interim order passed by the vacation Bench of the Karnataka High Court permits the college to admit students provided they are informed of the “de-recognised status” in advance. The college cannot collect fees from students.

Other colleges such a S.S. Institute, Davangere, and S.D.M Colleg, Dharwad, have been recommended for renewal of permission, and will be added to the list soon. The situation is no different in engineering college admissions. About 5,000 out of the 34,000 engineering seats allotted by the KEA are yet to receive All India Council for Technical Education approval. Here too, government-owned colleges are doing badly. Six of the 11 government colleges — in Bellary, Raichur, Hassan, Ramanagara, Mandya and Chamarajnagar — are yet to receive clearance according to the AICTE website. However, considering that half the seats in these colleges had no takers last year, their presence is not likely to be missed in the first round.

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