Andhra University admissions marred by low pass percentage

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 06/18/2013 - 20:00

VISAKHAPATNAM: Admissions to various post graduate courses offered by Andhra University (AU) and the 100-odd affiliated colleges have been marred largely because of the decline in the pass percentage in degree colleges, which has fallen from 50% last year to 30% this year.

In some cases, affiliated degree colleges have recorded single-digit pass percentages, according to sources in the university. As a result, with more than 13,000-odd seats up for grabs in the various post-graduate courses being offered, university authorities are facing a situation where there are too few takers for too many seats.

A total of 26,000 students appeared for Aucet-2013, of which less than 8,000 have got through their degree course examinations. With the instant supplementary examination yet to be held, many students are being denied entry into post-graduate courses as they had failed to pass their degree exams.

Many high scorers have also not participated in the first and second phases of Aucet counselling as they hope to appear for the instant supplementary that would be held on June 26.

This has worried the managements of the various affiliated PG colleges as most of the students who have appeared for counselling have made it through into the campus itself.

About 92% of the seats offered by the university have been taken and about 2,400 of the 6,500- odd candidates who have appeared for the counselling have been admitted into the campus, according to Prof O Aniel Kumar, director of admissions, AU.

"The campus placements should be over by June 21. In the second phase of counselling, which will go on till June 21, all the unclaimed quota seats will be offered to the open category candidates and by then, the university campus would be shut to all the other aspirants," he said.

It is sad that some of those who have topped or come in the top three have not been admitted so far because they failed their degree exams. However, they do stand a chance of making it into affiliated colleges as the results of instant supplementary exams would be out by the third week of July," he said.

However, the authorities observed that such candidates cannot claim fee reimbursements.

"The quality of students has been on the decline for quite a while. However, this time it was a real eye-opener. Most of the first-class students at the intermediate level opt for professional courses. Degree courses are slowly losing their sheen and the result is a clear indication of this trend," remarked the director of a private college, N Venkata Ram (name changed).

Only 30% of the seats offered by private colleges have been taken, which means that thousands of students are yet to make the grade, Kumar said.

"The quality of the students will take a massive hit. There is no doubt about that," he said.

"There are two main reasons for the exponential fall in standards. One is the decreasing number of students attending classes. More importantly, especially in mofussil and semi-urban areas, they are also employed in other activities," said a former chemistry lecturer of AVN College, Gopal Tallamraju.

"Another reason is the fall in the standards of teachers. Most of the teachers employed by private colleges are hired on a temporary basis and to cut costs, the one available for the lowest price is taken. This has resulted in a vicious circle as for some time now the best students have been opting for professional courses," he said.

"Most of my classmates fared very poorly in their intermediate examinations. Except for a few, a vast majority of them continued to fare poorly in the degree classes too. Also, students skip college regularly and with a dearth of quality lecturers, skipping classes is on the rise. Even 7 to 10 years ago, an ordinary first class student like me could not have dreamt of getting a seat in organic chemistry in the university campus," said K Srinivas Raju of Salur town, Vizianagaram district.