Ahmedabad: A private university in north Gujarat has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with a consultant to help the college enroll more students in its degree and diploma engineering courses in view of the dearth of students enrolling for these courses in self-financed colleges.
“For enrolling minimum 70 students in the diploma engineering students, the consultant will be paid Rs 13,000 per student while the incentive for enrolling up to 40 students will be Rs 18,000 per student and Rs 20,000 per student for recruiting more than 40 students,” the MoU read. The consultant will be richer by Rs 5,000 (incentive) for getting students in the MSc courses.
However, this is not the only university to have resorted to this. There are several universities that have adopted a similar strategy to boost student enrolment after half of the degree engineering seats remained vacant in the last few years.
For the record, 58 per cent of 64,087 degree-engineering seats remained vacant in 2020. In 2019, 57 per cent seats were empty while in 2018, 52 per cent seats had no takers.
“It is a matter of survival. If we get more students who pay upwards of Rs 1 lakh fee, the commission to agents is worth it,” an official of a private university that has signed an MoU with a consultant was quoted as saying by The Times of India.
Gujarat State Self-financed College Management Association president, Janak Khandwala said the high number of students passing class XII is likely to be a lifeline for colleges fighting for survival.
“Many SFIs are known to have signed MoUs with consultants to get them students. It is part of colleges going the extra mile to induce more students,” Khanwala was quoted as saying by the national daily.
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