Corporate colleges cock a snook at rules

Even before the Telangana Board of Intermediate Education (TSBIE) could release its annual schedule for junior colleges, several private and corporate colleges have launched their admission process for the coming academic year. Many private and corporate colleges in the State have started door-to-door campaign by discovering an easy way to access the information about students completing their tenth exams, including SSC, CBSE and ICSE.

These colleges have ‘tapped’ source whereupon they are procuring details of the students and their parents, including telephone numbers and residential addresses. Working on the lines of call centres, some dedicated employees of the colleges and also directors of academics are using the data base and pestering parents and guardians with phone calls, text messages to influence them to think of enrolling their wards in their respective colleges.

The irony is that colleges have begun the admissions even before the results have been announced. “The only way to reach out to the students is through the schools. We connected with schools and got information regarding probable school toppers. Besides, we are under immense pressure to bring in the maximum number of students, so that the rival colleges don’t take away these students,” said a principal of a corporate college, who sought anonymity.

While there is no residential system provision for private junior colleges in the Board of Intermediate Education, the corporate colleges continue to operate and make admissions in the residential campuses. It is learnt that 80 per cent of the seats in the residential campuses and 50 per cent seats in the day-scholar system have already been filled up under the process. In order to lure parents, the colleges are offering free education based on merit, fee concession and free transport facilities for girl students, so on and so forth.

“I have received several calls and messages from corporate colleges to make sure that my daughter performs well in the SSC examinations so I can avail concession in the fee and transportation facility,” Sarvesh Kumar, a parent, said. A State government employee said, “I wanted to put my daughter in college which is closer to my home. A few men from corporate institutions turned up at my home offering admission with wide range of offers. It was a marketing strategy that will not change my decision.”

The Board has already warned that stern action would be initiated if colleges make admissions before issuance of academic schedule. Apparently, several such notices and warnings have fallen on deaf ears because the college managements are busy with the enrollment process. A senior official of BIE said so far they haven’t received any complaints with regard to the admissions in the private colleges perhaps because the parents are worried over the aftermath.

By Yuvraj Akula