Ambedkar Tech Univ colleges may soon be free to choose other varsities

DBATU has become the first public university in the state to allow its affiliated colleges the freedom to move to another university

MUMBAI: Colleges affiliated to Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Technological University (DBATU) in Lonere, Raigad, may soon be able to choose universities in an area more suitable to them. The state government is planning to amend the DBATU Act to allow colleges to leave the university and seek affiliation with another public university of their choice. The amendment is expected to be introduced during the winter session of the state legislature.

Ambedkar Tech Univ colleges may soon be free to choose other varsities

With this amendment, DBATU has become the first public university in the state to allow its affiliated colleges the freedom to move to another university.

Under an amendment of the DBATU Act that came into force in 2017-18, all new technical colleges offering engineering, pharmacy, MBA and architecture courses were required to take affiliation with DBATU. The rule was introduced to bring all professional courses under one university on the lines of the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences.

“Since 2017, all these colleges have been given approval only under DBATU,” said Chandrakant Patil, higher and technical education minister. “However, there has been a demand from colleges and political leaders to let colleges select a university in their own region. We have decided to amend the Act to allow this.” Twenty-two colleges in Mumbai, which were established after 2017, will now be able to seek affiliation from the University of Mumbai.

DBATU currently has 437 affiliated colleges across the state. However, these have been facing several problems due to a shortage of staff at the university. Examination results are often delayed and even after they are declared, students sometimes have to wait for their mark sheets. Students also face difficulties in getting even small corrections made to their documents. For instance, if there is a spelling mistake in their name, they have to travel all the way to the Lonere campus to get it corrected.

“In the last two years, we received several complaints about delays in results,” said Patil. “We have now cleared the pending results and corrected many of these problems. The government has also prepared a plan to strengthen DBATU. We are modernising the DBATU system and filling the vacant posts. We want to develop the university as a research hub. Our aim is to ensure that colleges do not face problems because of university-related issues.”