Bhubaneswar, July 11: Private management colleges in the state, built in public-private partnership (PPP) mode, are concerned over their categorisation as government institutions in the official website of the Odisha Joint Entrance Examination Board.

The OJEE website has listed at least four private institutions offering management courses from the campuses of government colleges as “government colleges”. Entrepreneurs have tied up with Dhenkanal Autonomous College, G.M. Autonomous College, M.P.C. Autonomous College and S.C.S. Autonomous College to run MBA courses in PPP mode on their campuses.

However, the programmes are being run without any government grant or faculty appointment by government. The OJEE authorities have, however, clarified that they had mentioned the colleges as being run on PPP ventures in brackets.

“Also, how can we not categorise it as government when the same principals head these institutions,” said OJEE board secretary Priyabrata Sahoo. However, many feel that a mere mention of PPP in brackets is not sufficient. Academics fear these colleges, run on the premises of government colleges would often mislead students.

“The term PPP might be known to people in cities, but a student from rural area will surely be misguided by such statements. This is nothing but trying to lure students to take admission in privately-managed institutions that take the guise of government institutions,” said Saroj Kumar Sahoo, member of the Odisha Management Colleges’ Association, an association of private management colleges of the state.

“Although, to what extent the government partners with such institutions are contributing to maintain the quality of education is a different question, categorising these private institutions as government colleges will obviously misguide the MBA students and aspirants. Wrong categorisation of colleges amounts to misinterpretation of fact and suppression of information. This is intentional and ill-motivated,” said Sahoo.