Autonomous colleges under JNTU scrutiny for inflating marks

Hyderabad: A sharp rise in the number of engineering students securing distinction marks across Telangana has raised eyebrows — not for academic excellence, but because of alleged grade inflation in autonomous colleges. Officials from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad (JNTUH) flagged unusually high scores in some colleges that gained autonomous status in recent years.
According to vice-chancellor T Kishen Reddy, these institutions reported a significant increase in distinction marks. The results of such institutions were put on hold for further scrutiny, he said. "More than a 25% jump was noticed in the number of students securing distinction marks after becoming autonomous in some colleges," said Reddy in a recent meeting with college managements.
Incidentally, the issue was first flagged by the vice-chancellor of Osmania University in Nov 2024. It cracked the whip on a college for inflating marks.
Currently, there are over 90 autonomous colleges—88 of them engineering and three to four pharmacy — under JNTUH.
"The problem is only with engineering colleges. We conducted a study wherein we analysed the marks of students from autonomous colleges by comparing them to the time when they were affiliated with JNTUH. Be it pass percentage or increase in marks, there is a substantial increase. What's alarming is that the problem is not with one or two colleges, but with the majority of them," said a senior official from JNTUH.
The official added that the trend was prevalent in semester exams of even those colleges — about 40 to 45 of them — that got autonomous status about three to four years ago. "Corrective measures need to be brought in to address this. We are thinking of normalisation of marks to stop colleges from manipulating or inflating marks," the official added.
Some of the engineering college managements alleged that many autonomous colleges have turned into degree-granting establishments. "Many students are joining these colleges because they are promised a degree and good marks. In these colleges, everything is for sale," said KVK Rao, general secretary, All India Federation of Self-Financing Technical Institutions.
Apart from inflating marks, autonomous colleges are also allegedly ‘leaking' question papers, wrongly evaluating answer scripts, and not holding academic council and board of governance meetings, among others said JNTUH officials.
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