Ashoka University has been accused of “financial embezzlement”. The Higher Education Department of Haryana has issued a show-cause notice to the University for not admitting enough students of the state or giving them fee concession as per the provisions of the State Private Universities Act, 2006.
As per the Act, a university in the state has to reserve a minimum of 25 per cent seats for the admission of students of Haryana domicile. Of these, 10 percent seats should be reserved for the students belonging to the Scheduled Caste category. The Act also states that a university should provide fee waivers for such students. Of this, one-fifth of 25 per cent should be given full duty concession and two-fifths should be given 50 per cent duty concession. The rest should get 25% fee concession.
Ashoka University has flouted norms and manipulated data, thus “a clear case of financial embezzlement due to mismanagement and misinformation,” the government has said. “After scrutiny of the data, it is found that the enrollment of students of Haryana domicile in all the courses is low, which defeats the purpose of the provisions of the Act,” the notice said. Additional Chief Secretary (Higher Education) Anand Mohan Sharan has issued a show cause notice to the university.
The university said that it has strictly adhered to the requirements of the Act. All the students who got admission from the state got concessions in fee. It further said that it has offered financial assistance to over 45 per cent of its students over the years, amounting to over Rs 325 crore in scholarships, which is beyond the requirements of the Act.
Ashoka University also claimed that it has followed a merit-based admission policy as per Section 35 of the Act, which states that no meritorious student from the state was denied any seat. Moreover, the seats which were not filled through the state quota mostly remained incomplete, even after the provision for transfer of seats to other categories, it added. Ashoka University has also said that it has responded to the show-cause notice by the government.
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