Tamil Nadu   

Engineering colleges association to meet

Special Correspondent

To discuss AICTE's decision

CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu Self Financing Engineering Colleges Managements Association will meet in Chennai on June 11 (Saturday) to discuss the AICTE's decision to reduce the sanctioned intake in dozens of engineering colleges in the State.

The association president, Jeppiaar said the leaders of the association would apprise the member colleges of how to deal with the situation. "The colleges have been given time to make amends and make up the deficiencies. We will tell the member colleges how to approach the issue, collectively and then individually," he told The Hindu .

Mr. Jeppiaar said that the AICTE's inspection/appraisal teams had visited the colleges towards the end of the last academic year. "The colleges usually make new appointments of teachers during June. Similarly, equipment is purchased before June.

Only now would the colleges be ready with adequate staff and infrastructure. Once the colleges comply with these requirements, they can go the AICTE's appellate committee stating that the deficiencies have been made up," he said.

The world was experiencing an Information Technology boom and a sudden reduction in the intake into IT-related courses would have serious economic implications for the country in the next three or four years. The colleges should be given more time to meet with the Council's requirements, he said.

The All-India Medical and Engineering Colleges Association's president, T.D. Naidu, said an urgent meeting of the college heads would be held in the city on Tuesday to discuss the same issue.

`Should be ready'

However, educationists and academicians who have been part of peer teams note that the colleges should be ready with teachers and infrastructure at any time. They cannot say they will appoint teachers at the beginning of the year and not have them at the end of a year. This would mean they are hiring teachers on contract, which the AICTE norms do not allow.

A Salem-based education consultant, Jayaprakash Gandhi, says that in some cases, the AICTE action might sound logical, but in others reputed institutions had suffered. The cut-off marks for admissions have also changed. The main branches which are preferred by students have suffered. "Also, many colleges have made provisional admission to management quota seats, especially in the branches which have seen drastic cuts in intake. We will have to see what happens to them."

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