Today, May 2, State President of the National Students Union of India (NSUI), Telangana, Venkat Balmoori along with 30 others visited Telangana Education Minister Sabitha Indra Reddy with the intent to submit a memorandum.
The representation was regarding the plight of students who were admitted by a few Telangana colleges who claimed to have acquired university status. "Over 7,000 to 8,000 students are suffering because the college has not been identified as a university yet," says the president.
Get your facts right...
The state passed the Private Universities Bill in 2022 and it is yet to be approved by the Governor of Telangana, Tamilisai Soundararajan.
The Bill passed on September 13, 2022, by the State Legislature sought to include five private universities in the schedule of the Telangana State Private Universities (Establishment and Regulation) Act, 2018. Then, in April 2023, a plea was filed by Telangana Government seeking directions to Governor to clear ten bills passed by the Legislative Assembly, including the aforementioned bill.
"The Telangana State Private Universities (Establishment and Regulation) (Amendment) Bill, 2022 (L.A. Bill No.12 of 2022) was under active consideration of the Governor," said the Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta during the hearing in the apex court on April 10, 2023.
Though the bill wasn't given the governor's go-ahead, Balmoori alleges that the private colleges started advertising themselves as universities and initiated the process of enrolling students.
NSUI supports students
"Without Governor's ordinance, how can these colleges run admissions?" asks the president of the student group. Further, when asked about the colleges under the bill, he claimed that there are six colleges. Few of them are:
Guru Nanak University
Sreenidhi Institute of Science & Technology (SNIST)
Amity Hyderabad
MNR College of Engineering & Technology and others.
"SNIST has given 400 students admissions to the CSE (Computer Science Engineering) group charging Rs 4 lakh per annum. Moreover, Guru Nanak University gave admissions to 4,000 students charging Rs 2 lakh per annum," claimed Balmoori.
Listing out the demands, the student leader said, a cheating case needs to be booked against these colleges for illegally running official websites and taking admissions. The state government should intervene immediately and transfer the students to Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University (JNTU) Hyderabad as exams are about to begin, he says.
Adding to these demands, Abhijeet Yadav urged the state government to clarify whether these colleges will be given university status to not. "If they are not given the status, what is the solution to these students' problem?" he asks.
Speaking more on this, Balmoori stressed that the semester exams for JNTU Hyderabad and Osmania University students are scheduled to be conducted from May 5. Therefore, the need of the hour is the state government's intervention in helping these students. Also, Balmoori met the management of the college administrations personally and spoke about it but to no avail.
Giving more details about submitting a memorandum to education minister, he said, "We staged a peaceful protest in front of the minister's house. Police have detained us by not allowing us to submit the memorandum to the minister."
Students speak up
A student from Guru Nanak University (GNU), on the condition of anonymity, shared with EdexLive that about 4,000 students were given admissions stating that the institution received the status of a private university. But after eight months of enrolling the students, the reality turned out to be different.
"We (students) have been protesting for a week. Following this, the college orally declared a two-week holiday for all students. Students are going to college, protesting and are heading back home," said the first-year EEE (Electrical and Electronics Engineering) student.
The student highlighted that the exams were scheduled to be held a week ago, but because of the protests, the management halted the exams. When asked what the management's response was to the current concern, the student allegedly claims, "The management has asked us to wait for a week by saying that it is confident of getting the university status."
Another student from the Sreenidhi Institute of Science & Technology (SNIST), who wanted to stay anonymous, said, "Without completion of the first semester, the college collected a total fee of Rs 3.2 lakh. Additionally, our first semester exams were scheduled for April 28, 2023, but were cancelled because of a strike by 150 students on April 28."
"The management is not taking any responsibility and our faculty forced us to write our exams by stating the university status will be given," said the first-year student pursuing CSE (Computer Science Engineering). Although we appeared for the exams, two more were left which were cancelled by the institute later. Without permission, running a college is useless, the student stressed.
What next?
When we asked Venkat Balmoori what they are planning next? He said he is seeking an appointment with the Commissioner of Collegiate & Technical Education, Navin Mittal. "We will take all the affected students and meet the Commissioner very soon," he said.
