Just 30 marks will let you pass BE, but will it get you a job or seat in foreign varsity?

Bengaluru: How to lure students when most engineering colleges in the state are struggling to fill seats? Bring down the passing marks in all semesters!

Experts, who are working with a couple of private universities that are offering B.E and B.Tech courses, told Deccan Chronicle that these institutions have brought down the passing marks to ridiculously low 30/100, to make them more attractive for students. Even in these 30 marks, up to 15 can be scored through internal marks and projects.

These institutions, which have got the private university tag through state legislation and have valid University Grants Commission (UGC) recognition, can prepare their own bylaws and examination patterns.

Standards lowered

But instead of following stringent guidelines, these institutes have lowered the standards to ensure more students joined them. “AICTE and UGC have stipulated norms for conducting examinations in all universities, but these institutions are not ready to follow them. Most of these universities have majority of students from other states and foreign countries,” said an academic who was part of a private university. Officials at the Directorate of Technical Education pointed out that such tweaked marks and exam guidelines would pose problems for students in the future.  

“A few months ago, a police complaint was filed against one such private university for an examination scandal. There is lot of discrepancy in the way courses are offered in private universities. Mushrooming of private/ autonomous universities is a big challenge in the higher education sector,” an officer said.

Sources in the Karnataka Examination Authority (KEA) said that many private engineering colleges have more than 8,000 B.E./B.Tech seats, over and above the fixed seat matrix from the CET.

“Institutes adopt many such methods to lure students. There should be an autonomous mechanism to monitor these private universities and their admission and examination mechanisms,” said an officer from the Directorate of Technical Education.

“These students will face problems while applying for jobs or for higher education in foreign universities. Their marks cards will be definitely rejected. No institute can have 30 as the passing mark out of 100,” said Mr Shanmukha Hebbar, who is working as a representative for many foreign universities.