Self-financed colleges aided by ambiguity

The ambiguous admission procedure based on first come first serve basis and cut-off percentage marks by Gujarat University has proved to be a great leveler for self-financed colleges offering commerce and BBA courses in the city. Brilliant students who were unable to secure seats in good colleges made a beeline to seek admissions in self-financed colleges.

Most of the seats in all the self-financed colleges of the state were secured on the third day of the admission procedure while the process is in progress in less reputed colleges of the city. The academic community and the students’ leaders blamed those sitting in the admission committee of the Gujarat University for adopting such a procedure instead of the system based on merits which would have definitely harmed the interests of self-financed colleges.

Explaining how the system has proved beneficial for the self-financed colleges youth Congress general secretary Manish Doshi said that students who have high percentage do not get admission in reputed colleges due to this first come first basis system. They have no option but to go for self-financed college offering commerce and BBA courses, he added. Another factor that has affected the rush to self-financed colleges this year is riots, he further said.

To secure admission for a normal seat a student has to pay Rs 350 per term while in self-financed colleges there are two categories, regular and payment seat. Students have to pay Rs 6,000 per annum for regular seat while Rs 10,000 for payment seat. There are around seven self-financed colleges offering commerce and ten self-financed colleges offering BBA courses.

A student, who did not wish tell his name, said that besides obtaining 74 per cent marks he was unable to secure admission in a good college due to the first come first basis procedure. Instead of going to some less reputed college he preferred admission in self-financed H.L. Institute of Commerce, he said.

A principal of a reputed college said that the Gujarat University ignoring rights of the students has adopted this system of admission and members of the admission committee are responsible for this. This system which is inconvenient for students should be stopped immediately, he added.

Sahajanand Vanijya Mahavidyalaya, Ambawadi, however, has discarded the cut-off mark system and has adopted merit system inspite of being a part of the Gujarat University. Acting vice-chancellor of the Gujarat University Chaitanya Khambholja said that cut off percentage admission procedure is very torturous for students however, admission on merit is tedious and also costly for students. Every system has its drawbacks and advantages, he added. He revealed that students who secured good marks mostly between 60 to 70 per cent were left out of good colleges. He did not make any comment on self-financed colleges.

However, Parag Patel of self-financed H.L. Institute of Commerce said that they prefer merit system than the cut-off percentage even for the self-financed college. They had to close admission at 75 per cent this year and by 12 am on the first day all the seats were secured, he added

Republished from The Asian Age