When Students In India Can't Earn College Admission On Merit, They Buy Their Way In

[Shrek]

https://www.npr.org/2019/08/04/745182272/when-students-in-india-cant-earn-college-admission-on-merit-they-buy-their-way-i

At most of India's private engineering and medical schools, a certain number of spots in the freshman class — usually about 15% — are reserved for the college's management to allocate at its discretion. (Most public universities do not use the management quota system.) In theory, that could mean awarding seats to underprivileged students. But in practice, it usually means selling those seats.

"To build quality, money is important," says S.S. Mantha, an emeritus professor of robotics at the Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute in Mumbai. From 2012 to 2015, Mantha chaired the All India Council for Technical Education, a government agency that oversees India's technical colleges.

In the U.S. "Varsity Blues" scandal, some of the parents' illicit payments went to sports coaches. But in India, Mantha says, the money parents pay goes straight to the schools.

To some, it looks like corruption. Prices vary from student to student, often agreed upon in private meetings between parents and college administrators — sometimes with the help of education consultants.