The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Consortium demands restoration of seats reduced in 55 colleges in Tamil Nadu

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jun 27, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Consortium demands restoration of seats reduced in 55 colleges in Tamil Nadu

K. Ramachandran

We wanted AICTE to consider the one-man committee's follow-up report: Jeppiaar

CHENNAI: : The Consortium of Professional, Arts and Science Colleges of Tamil Nadu, has urged the All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) to restore the seats that were reduced by the Council in over 55 engineering colleges in the State.

The individual colleges had sent their representations in the prescribed format to the council explaining the steps taken to make up for the deficiencies cited by the inspection committee, which visited the colleges earlier this year for continuation of the approval for the colleges.

The committee reports pointed to deficiencies, including severe faculty shortage in some of the colleges.

This led to the AICTE reducing the sanctioned seats strength in the colleges. Over 4,000 seats were reduced across 57 colleges.

However, the AICTE gave the colleges time till July 7 to explain the steps taken for making up for the deficiencies.

The Consortium President, Jeppiaar, who led a delegation to the AICTE headquarters in Delhi last week, said it was for the individual colleges to give the "replies" by July 7.

"But as a Consortium we took up their cause and we will also help them make up for the deficiencies. However, we wanted the AICTE Chairman Damodar Acharya and the Member-Secretary, Anuradha Gupta, to change the procedure. When an inspection committee cites certain deficiencies, the Council should put the colleges on notice and give them time to reply or take the needed steps. Reduction of seats as a penal step is not wholly wrong, but justice demands people be given time to explain their position or make amends. After the notice period, a single-man committee can revisit the college and verify the colleges' claims of making amends.

"We wanted the AICTE to consider the one-man committee's follow up report and then decide on seat reduction," Mr. Jeppiaar said.

The Consortium also wanted the AICTE to return at least a part of the huge endowment deposited by colleges to get the initial approval from the Council.

"Each college paid Rs.50 lakhs as endowment five or six years ago. This could have got an accumulated interest of at least Rs.15 lakhs in the past five or six years," he noted and added that returning a part of the deposit could help the colleges.

Some institutions had a large vacancy position and thus they faced fund problems and returning a part of the endowment could help them buy new hardware. .

The Consortium was also planning to set up a company for assembling or manufacturing computing equipment for the colleges.

This would reduce the budget of individual colleges for buying new hardware every year.

"Today a branded computer costs Rs.25,000. If we import the mother boards and assemble a computer using in-house expertise, each college can save lakhs of rupees ," he added.

Postgraduate education

Mr. Jeppiaar said the Consortium also took up the issue of postgraduate education. "The AICTE norms insist on recruiting doctorates for teaching PG courses. But we do not have enough Ph.D holders in engineering for teaching in unaided colleges.

The AICTE is planning a new scheme to assist college teachers to undergo Ph.D courses under the quality improvement programme.

These teachers can then go back to their colleges and guiding more of their colleges to pursue research. If the scheme fructifies, we will certainly welcome it, as we need more PGs and doctorates," he added.

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