Doing a job while pursuing a degree will cost students their scholarship and fee reimbursement from this year. Many students who have enrolled for M.Tech courses in engineering colleges by claiming scholarships and fee reimbursement from the government are working as faculty members in the same or another engineering college and are not attending classes.
The state has obtained details of faculty working in all engineering colleges from the varsities and has identified M.Tech students who are claiming scholarships and fee reimbursement. The government has decided to scrap the scholarship and fee reimbursement to such students.
A “college managements- student nexus” is at work here to siphon off government funds. The modus operandi is simple. The colleges enroll students for M.Tech courses. But these students never attend classes and instead work as faculty in the same college, or in other colleges. The college management “manages” their attendance so that they sit for the exams. The severe shortage of faculty in colleges is being exploited by M.Tech students in this case.
Even more shocking, it has come to light that some students enrolled for the M.Tech course neither work as faculty nor attend classes. There is an understanding between the management and the student to share the scholar-ship/reimbursement from the government equally. The government has been reimbursing the tuition fee of Rs 57,000 per annum for M.Tech students whose annual family income is below Rs 1 lakh. There are nearly 600 engineering colleges offering M.Tech courses in the state, with a total of about 40,000 seats.
However, less than 50 per cent of seats were filled last year with a majority of B.Tech graduates opting for jobs instead of working towards another degree. Eighty per cent of the students eligible for fee reimbursement and scholarships claim the benefit from the government.