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Students give state colleges the miss !

Even though Andhra Pradesh has the highest number of professional colleges in the country, stu- dents here are making a bee- line for col- leges in other states.

Oct. 3: Andhra Pradesh has the highest number of professional colleges in the country, yet, ironically, large numbers of its students are opting to pursue professional courses in other states.

Universities and colleges are issuing migration certificates on a scale never seen before, a worrying trend for colleges, many of which have had to shut down for lack of students. The state government is concerned as it is losing hundreds of crores of rupees in revenue by way of affiliation fees and taxes on education.

The migration of students to other states was common till the late 1990s. But as hundreds of professional colleges opened in the state after 1997, when the sector was thrown open to private
players, migration levels fell significantly.

This has changed again recently.

As per official estimates, as many as 75,000 students, who qualified in the Eamcet engineering exam this year, migrated to other states to take admission in engineering courses. Another 25,000 students opted for management quota seats located in other states.

Another 10,000 students opted for reputed deemed universities and centrallyfunded institutions and another 50,000 students opted for National Institutes of Technology and Indian Institutes of Technology.

Education officials and college managements are mystified about this outflow to others states when AP has more than enough seats in almost every course.

The reasons are probably two-fold. The recent politi
cal turmoil over bifurcation of the state, that spilled out onto the streets and involved students as well, may have made destinations in other states more attractive to students. More importantly, it is the poor quality of education offered in a majority of colleges that has been forcing parents and students to search for better alternatives outside the state.

“The pass percentage in engineering, MBA and MCA courses has dipped to less than 20 per cent for the last three years. The results are worse in medical and dental colleges in the state.
Permitting hundreds of colleges every year without the required faculty and infrastructure has started to show negative results. The largescale migration of students from the state this year is an indicator of how things will turn out for colleges in the state in the coming days,” said Prof. Bhanu Murthy of Osmania University.

“I have examined several students who finished engineering courses in the state recently,” said Mr K.R.

Vishwanath, a senior engineer in the irrigation department. “They lack subject knowledge and communication skills. Many are rushing to computer training and English-speaking classes to obtain necessary skills for employment after getting an engineering degree. This means they learnt nothing during the course period.” Thousands of students from East Godavari, West Godavari, Chittoor, Nellore and Visakhapatnam are studying in the Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) in Tamil Nadu. This year, there were 15,000 more admissions from AP in VIT than last year.

Source: DC