35 Colleges, Varsities Face Admission Fraud Slur In Odisha, Issued Notices

Bhubaneswar: At least 35 higher educational institutions in Odisha, including three universities, have been accused of admitting students in violation of the e-admission guidelines laid down by the government.

The Higher Education department has reportedly issued show cause notices to the Vice-Chancellors of three universities and principals of seven government and 25 private colleges for violation of e-admission guidelines and procedures.

Sources said the three universities which have been issued show cause notices are Khallikote, Rajendra and Ravenshaw universities.

Admissions to colleges are being done through the Students Academic Management System (SAMS). After admission is done, the SAMS list of students admitted to colleges was sent to the universities.

However, following a verification it was found that names of some students who had taken admission by paying the fees were missing from the SAMS list.

As per the e-admission process, a student fills up a common application form (CAF) online where he/she opts for a minimum of five and a maximum of 20 colleges. Slide-up ensures eligible students get selected for admission in higher ‘choice of preference’ institutions applied in the form.

If the student gets a better college in slide-up, he/she is required to forgo the first college offered to him/her during the selection process and take admission to the college offered in slide-up.  The admission fees paid to the first college should be immediately refunded.

A probe, however, showed that if a student did not take admission in the slide-up for any reason, he/she came back to the first college, took admission again by paying all fees. Though the college authorities should have informed them that this is not allowed, they took the money for admissions and college fees for the entire academic year, admitted the student who attended classes and appeared for all internal exams. However, the department was not informed about such admissions, sources said.

The irregularities later came to light before final examinations when the SAMS list of admitted students was tallied by the university with the list provided by colleges for generation of their exam registration numbers.

It was found that names of around 50 students provided by the colleges were missing in the SAMS list and as a result, their admission was considered null and void.

The verification process is in progress and more such cases are likely to come to appear.