MSU loses Rs.35.41 crore via satellite centres

CHENNAI: Indiscriminate franchising of courses at the Manonmaniam Sundaranar University led to a revenue loss of `35.41 crore to the varsity and undue benefit of `27.73 crore to private technical collaborators, according to an audit note by Comptroller and Auditor General of India. In a ‘Factual Note’ sent to the Higher Education Secretary in March, a copy of which is available with Express, the Deputy Accountant General (ISC II), P S Iyengar, stated that the Tirunelveli-based university started a new mode of education styled ‘Satellite Centre Courses’ in 2008-2009 in approved institutions on a “revenue sharing basis.” Subsequently, the varsity signed a Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) with 74 private trusts/educational institutions between November 2008 and March 2011 and permitted them to conduct courses of the university through face to face, online and virtual classroom platforms under distance education mode throughout the country. This apart, the varsity allowed the technical collaborators to conduct their own courses and examinations and “agreed to allow University’s degrees or diplomas for all the courses”, the note stated.The audit scrutiny of records of technical collaboration programme in the directorate of distance and continuing education revealed that “there was no transparent system in selection of technical collaborators.” In a deviation from convention, the inspection of the premises of educational institutions for selection as technical collaborators was done on the “oral orders vice-chancellor of the University” and “was not brought to the knowledge of the Senate”.The university permitted the technical collaborators to conduct courses ranging from one to 323 during 2008-11 “but failed to levy or collect registration fee as per the approved guidelines resulting in the loss of `33.88 crore.” As per the guidelines, every institution willing to run courses shall apply to the Registrar with a payment of `50,000 as registration fee for each course, the note said.The report added that, “the university did not follow the fee structure approved by the Senate but fixed lower fee for technical collaboration courses”.  This resulted in a loss of `2.33 crore during 2010-11 alone, the note observed.