Bengaluru: A compliance audit of the department of technical education has revealed that 15 out of 19 professors deputed for higher studies failed to complete their doctorates within the prescribed period.As per the Quality Improvement Programme under All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), faculty members of govt engineering colleges and management institutes can pursue PhD courses to upgrade their expertise and capabilities. The duration of the programme is three years, during which the candidates have to complete all the academic requirements. In exceptional cases, the window is extended by a maximum of one year.According to the Comptroller and Auditor General of India report for 2024, as many as 19 lecturers of govt engineering colleges and polytechnics were deputed to pursue PhD between 2017-18 and 2020-21. Of these, 15 did not complete their doctorate within the prescribed time. The remaining four faculty members did so, albeit with delays of up to 33 months.As per the rules, if govt concludes that sufficient progress has not been shown by the candidate or the course has not been completed within the prescribed time, the period of deputation is to be terminated and the entire expenditure incurred on deputation is to be recovered from the candidate. However, the said amount — estimated to be Rs 5.7 crore — was not recovered from the professors.In Sept 2025, govt said all such cases of course discontinuation are being examined. After promising that action would be taken as per the rules of Karnataka Civil Services Act, it also issued letters to the commissioner of the collegiate and technical education department to recover money in such cases.“Govt has decided to recover 50% of the amount from retired employees and 100% from others. We’ve submitted a proposal in this regard, and it has been approved by govt. Based on this, we have initiated the recovery process,” said H Prasanna, director of the department of technical education.
