High court relief for self-financing engineering colleges

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state government’s stand against permanent affiliation to self-financing institutions has crumbled down as the high court ordered in favour of three self-financing engineering colleges in the state.
Though the APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University had decided to sanction permanent affiliation to colleges with National Board of Accreditation (NBA) rating or NAAC accreditation, requests for the same from self-financing engineering colleges were kept in cold storage by the university, especially after the LDF government came to power. However, challenging the university’s refusal to process their application for permanent affiliation, three among the first crop of self-financing engineering colleges in the state approached the HC and secured an order favourable to them. 

Sree Budha College of Engineering, Alappuzha, which is over 15 years old, was the first to seek HC intervention in the issue. Rajagiri College of Engineering, Ernakulam, and Saintgits College of Engineering, Kottayam, too followed suit. Section 63(3) of the APJ Abdul Kalam Technological & Science University Act, 2015 provides for grant of permanent affiliation to colleges which have functioned with provisional affiliation for five years.

The university’s standing counsel argued in the court that the government has not framed statutes with regard to permanent affiliation and hence the university could not consider the applications at present. As per the UGC guidelines, colleges that function with temporary affiliation for minimum five years are eligible for permanent affiliation — a major benchmark considered by the Government of India in choosing colleges for financial assistance. It was to ensure the quality level that the KTU had initially insisted NAAC or NBA accreditation a prerequisite for colleges seeking permanent affiliation, after five years of continuous existence.

The HC directive to give permanent affiliation to the three engineering colleges in private sector comes at a time when the state government is mulling various options to circumvent the fresh UGC guidelines that moot academic and administrative autonomy to higher education institutions.

Dismissing the university standing counsel’s argument, the court observed in the verdict in the petition filed by Sree Budha College that the delay in framing first statutes cannot be a reason for not taking a decision on the request made by the petitioner for permanent affiliation in accordance with the law…application preferred by the petitioner is liable to be considered and disposed of by the university. According to the petitioners, only colleges in Kerala are denied permanent affiliation by universities while universities elsewhere in the country accord the same to all affiliated colleges that complete five years of temporary affiliation.

Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/education/news/high-court-relief-for-self-financing-engineering-colleges/articleshow/63360519.cms