VTU to issue show cause notice to 2 engineering colleges

The show cause notices will be issued to PDA College of Engineering in Kalaburagi and Basaveshwara College of Engineering in Bagalkot

The fate of hundreds of students enrolled into two government aided autonomous engineering colleges in the state is in a fix as the colleges have not got the renewal of autonomous status from the University Grants Commission (UGC) for the last three years.

Considering the delay in submitting renewal of autonomous status, the Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) Belagavi has decided to issue show cause notice to PDA College of Engineering in Kalaburagi and Basaveshwara College of Engineering in Bagalkot.

Confirming this to DH, VTU Vice Chancellor Prof Vidyashankar S said that it was decided in the recent Executive Council meeting to issue final show cause notice to these colleges.

"Definitely there is a lapse from the university side too because on what basis they have allowed these institutions to continue with the autonomous status when there is no renewal document submitted. We will ask for an explanation even from the officials who were in charge of it," said Vidyashankar.

As per the procedure, when an institution gets autonomous status they will get both administrative and academic autonomy under which the institutions will frame curriculum, conduct examinations and award degrees with the approval from the university. For this, the institutions must submit the renewal of letter to the university as per the norms.

But in these cases the institutions have not submitted the renewal letter from the UGC since the 2019-20 academic year. Speaking to DH, S R Mise, principal of PDA engineering college, said that the delay was because the UGC was postponing the visit to inspect the institution every time.

"We are confident of getting renewal by 27th of this month. The committee constituted by the UGC for the inspection is postponing the visit for the last two years and this time they have confirmed that they will visit by 15th of June. There are also chances for us to get it done online as we have the National Board of Accreditation," he said.

The authorities of Basaveshwara Engineering College were not available for comment.

Meanwhile, the UGC recently issued a circular stating that it would not provide post facto approval to any of the institutions.