India’s technical-education regulator has warned the country’s engineering and professional colleges against taking bribes for admissions, The Indian Express reported.

The regulator, the All India Council for Technical Education, sent a note to the colleges saying they were forbidden to take donations or charge “any more or additional fees under any circumstances other than the fees prescribed” by a fee-regulation committee from any student for any course in the 2008-9 academic year.

Bribery is common at India’s almost 1,200 private engineering colleges, and a lack of government oversight has allowed engineering education to become largely driven by profits.

Hundreds of engineering schools sell admission to students who can pay “capitation fees,” and the regulator has been criticized for not cracking down on the practice.

The regulator said it would take “serious action” against colleges found to have accepted additional fees and would report them to the relevant state governments, according to the newspaper. —Shailaja Neelakantan