The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Colleges in rural areas fare better

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, May 01, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Colleges in rural areas fare better

K. Ramachandran

Ranking deciding factor for prospective students

CHENNAI: Engineering colleges in the city and suburbs appeared to be losing out to their counterparts in other districts, going by the results of the I, III, V and VII semesters of B.E/B.Tech courses, which were published recently by Anna University.

The University has displayed on its website (www.annuniv.edu) the latest results and performance of the students. Conceding that this acts as an informal ranking of the institution, college administrators see the ranking as a crucial element that will decide the number of takers for their institutions when engineering admissions begin in July.

Topping the list of 227 affiliated institutions is Mepco Schlenk Enginering of Sivakasi. Surprisingly, only nine colleges in and around Chennai find a place in the first 30 colleges which have a pass percentage of around 70.

Sri Sivasubramania Nadar College of Engineering (ranked 3rd), Velammal Engineering (5th), Meenakshi Sundarajan (9th) Pallavan College of Engineering (11th), Sri Sairam Engineering (12th), Prince Shri Venkateswara Padmavathi Engineering (15th), Sri Venkateswara College of Engineering-Sriperambudur (16th), Jeppiaar Engineering College (20th) and St. Joseph's College of Engineering (23rd) are the institutions in the "Top-25". The other 21 colleges are from other districts.

University administrators are puzzled as they feel that the institutions in the city have good infrastructure and the quality of the students is good as well. But others note that even at the higher secondary level, students from the southern and western districts get more of the ranks. They tend to choose colleges near their homes.

The top rankers who choose institutions in Chennai get into Anna University's four constituent colleges. However, heads of colleges in the city and the suburban areas of Tiruvallur and Kancheepuram districts had a complaint; after the results were published, many students, including those who normally got high ranks slipped in their performance. Many students sought revaluation and even went on further appeal to the Controller of Examinations. A city college head says the institution got more than 10-15 per cent improvement in terms of the overall pass percentage.

Such colleges want the university to improve its evaluation system .

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