Stranded by CAP, Pune students now battle demands for exorbitant fees

admissions

While Centralised Admissions Process (CAP) authorities had assured students that junior college admissions would be completely transparent this year, for several, the supposedly hassle-free process has become a nightmare. On Wednesday, the office of the deputy directorate of education began receiving complaints from students and parents about junior colleges that were demanding exorbitant fees for std XI admissions.

CAP runneth over: Today is the last day for students to apply for college seats after checking the cut-off mark, as well as the number of vacant seats in each college. File pics

These were students who had not been allocated any college seats even after three rounds of admissions through CAP. mid-day had reported that there are 3,000 such students who had no choice but to begin applying for seats to each college independently on Tuesday (‘3,000 college students left in the lurch by CAP', July 16).

Deputy director of education and CAP chairman, Suman Shinde.

On Wednesday, the parent of one of the 3,000 approached the deputy directorate with an oral complaint alleging that a reputed junior college had demanded inflated fees for admission to its Bifocal course.

CAPspeak
"After receiving the complaint, we immediately asked the college for an explanation and the institute has taken back its excessive fee structure," said a CAP official. Taking cognisance of the complaints, CAP chairperson and deputy director of education Suman Shinde made it clear that even though junior colleges are now running an offline admission procedure, the deputy directorate office will not tolerate any malpractice. "If parents have any specific complaints against junior colleges about denial of admission, asking for donations, or demanding excessive fees, they should approach this office. I assure you, action will be taken on immediate basis," she said.

Mid-day's report on the issue, dated July 16.

"Last year during CAP, I had acted against one such junior college that was demanding exorbitant fees within 12 hours of complaint. Now too, during their offline admissions, they have to publish detailed merit lists. And only on the basis of that list will they give admissions to remaining students," she added. Once all the admissions are over, the office will compile the complete data from all the colleges Asked why CAP does not simply begin a fresh round of admissions to ensure that the remaining students are allocated seats, Shinde replied, "Considering staff crunch and other work load, it is really difficult to add admission rounds and that's the only reason admissions have shifted on to colleges."

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, many parents visited the deputy directorate with complaints of not being allotted seats in specifically requested colleges despite having the required merit. However, cross-verification by CAP officials revealed that not a single such claim would hold, as there were several reasons behind why some students did not get admission in their preferred college.

Shinde pointed out that they were the same reasons why the students had not been given admission through CAP in the first place. "All these remaining 3,000 students have either scored between 60 and 80 per cent, or below 50 per cent. In most cases, they have given preferences for colleges with high cut-off marks, and that's the only reason why their names had not appeared in any of the three merit lists."

According to the timetable set by CAP, today is the last day for the students to apply to junior colleges after checking the cut-off marks from the third round, and the number of vacant seats available in that college. The junior colleges will then publish the final merit list on July 21 and conduct admissions accordingly.