The State government has cancelled the affiliation of nine BEd colleges of Bangalore University. A government order to this effect was issued on Friday by the Department of Higher Education.
The nine disaffiliated colleges are: Amitha BEd College, Bangalore City College of Education, Rajiv Gandhi College of Education, Unity College of Education, Jnanavikas College of Education, Huliappa Mallamma BEd college, Regency College of Education, Manjula Mallesh College of Education and St Joseph’s College of Education.
These colleges were categorised as ‘defunct’ by the Academic Audit Committee of the university. Former vice chancellor N Prabhu Dev had constituted the committee in 2009 after he came across irregularities at examination centres.
The committee inspected all the BEd colleges and listed these institutions under ‘gross irregularities.’ The decision was ratified by both the Academic Council and the Syndicate, and the colleges were asked to pay a fine of Rs five lakh.
“ The State government later requested the university to reduce the amount of fine to Rs two lakh. The colleges were given six months to comply with the order. After the colleges failed to pay the fine, they were categorised as defunct,” said Prof Nagarajaiah, former Professor of RV Teachers' College, also a member of the Audit Committee.
The committee functioned under the chairmanship of R M Ranganath, former registrar of BU. Prof Narayanaswamy, Prof Ravindra Reshme and Prof G S Chandrashekar were the other members of the panel. Bangalore University Vice Chancellor Prof Thimme Gowda said the government order had not yet reached the university and the defunct colleges were removed from the university's list prior to this order.