Bangalore, January 23: Just when students thought they had seen the worst in the deemed university crisis, there’s more bad news. The state government has decided to shut down 25 unauthorised academic institutions in Bangalore because they don’t haveaffiliations to any university.
The 25 institutions are part of 30 academic institutions in Karnataka identified by the state department of higher education as unauthorised, higher education minister Aravind Limbavalisaid on Friday.
He said these institutions will be closed down forcibly using the help from the police on Saturday.
The decision follows the findings of a probe by a committee constituted by the department of higher education to track illegal colleges in Karnataka. Limbavali said the department had issued notices to all these colleges twice but only three of them had replied. He said the decision to shut these illegal institutions is to prevent their students from being cheated or facing problems in future over the authenticity of the certificates issued by these colleges at the end of their courses.
“We can still give a chance to some of them who are providing quality education but only if they are ready to be affiliated to the state government,” Limbavali said.
Strangely, the state government does not have the information on how many students will be affected, nor about alternative arrangements for them to continue their studies.
“If the students give us representation, we will think of it (alternative arrangements). I don’t know how students join such institutions without inquiring about their background,” Limbavali said.
–Agencies–