Several Ayurveda and Homoeopathy colleges were caught by surprise last week as teams from Maharashtra University of Health Sciences (MUHS) carried out criminal investigation-like raids, visiting multiple campuses simultaneously. Adding to the intrigue, even members of the inspection teams themselves were kept in the dark, only being informed at the last minute about the specific institutes they were about to visit.

In a first for MUHS, a special software was developed to pick members of the local inspection committee (LIC), elimi nating chances of human interference or biases. The team members were provided with only a few hours’ notice before the inspection, with even the committee head being informed the previous e vening without knowledge of the other team members until the next day. Over nine days, the teams visited 154 colleges, including 90 Ayurveda, 57 Homeopathy and seven Unanicolleges across Maharashtra. Dr Madhuri Kanitkar, vice chancellor of MUHS, told TOI numerous deficiencies were discovered in several colleges during the inspections, ranging from inadequate or duplic ation of faculty to issues with technical staff, among others. “The computerisation process of selecting LICs allowed us to maintain the element of surprise. Developing asoftware was necessary to address concerns about collusion between inspecting team members and colleges, an issue rumoured for years,” she said. Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC) developed the software to automate in spection teams’ selection, earlier piloted to carry out inspection at 52 medical and 23 dental colleges.

MUHS officials said in thepast, there were instances where a single trust overseeing multi ple Ayurveda and Homeopathy colleges would showcase the same technical staff at both institutes. However, simultaneous inspections prevented such manipulation. “It has allowed us to e xpose the lacunae in several colleges and bring them to light for necessary action,” said a senior university official, adding the teams also study OPD and inpatient load and availability of i nfrastructure. Earlier this year, a similar computerised selection process was used to inspect m edical and dental colleges where duplication of faculty was found in at least two.

Dr Kanitk ar said a scrutiny committee will study the inspection findings. The r eports will be produced before the Academic Council which will decide whom to grant affiliation. Those that don’t fulfil the criteria will not be allowed to admit students in the a cademic year. With the software, MUHS has carried out inspection of 248 institutes this year, with n ursing and p hysiotherapy colleges next in the pipeline.