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A challenge in technical education

V. Jayanth

A majority of the engineering colleges in the southern States are said to be facing the problem of chronic shortage of qualified staff to head departments and occupy the professorial chairs.

— Photo: N. Sridharan

ACADEMIC CONCERNS: Heads of Departments and Professors from Anna University and the University of Madras at a function in Chennai.

AT A point of time when a draft legislation to regulate the functioning of private self-financing colleges is under active discussion, the issue of ensuring that these colleges have qualified faculty members in adequate numbers should not be lost sight of. While new and contemporary courses of study are being introduced in many universities and private institutions, questions have been raised on whether they have the required faculty to handle the subjects. University administrators and college managements insist they have special programmes to enable faculty members to pursue part-time programmes to acquire higher qualifications in order to keep abreast of developments in their fields. But the question remains: do they get enough candidates to do this?

Enquiries with leading technical universities and academic institutions reveal that admissions to M.E. and M.Tech courses have been on the decline. In the past few years, many colleges and institutes have not been able to fill their full quota of seats in these courses. Consequently, they run the risk of being asked to wind up the courses as they are unviable. The demand for seats in the undergraduate courses far outstrips that for post-graduate programmes, except in the case of "integrated" degree courses. If that is the case, how can the colleges expect to get qualified hands to handle new subjects and deal with entirely new curricula with which the old hands may not be too familiar?

AICTE survey

A recent survey by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), which is in charge of checking out, and granting recognition to, colleges and courses, revealed instances of more than one college providing the same names of qualified professors as being on their faculty. A look at the time-tables and schedules indicated that these persons could not have been in the colleges at the same time, for some of them were in different towns or different States altogether. It was apparent that at least some of these colleges were only "displaying" some names and managing the task with their other staff members.

At Anna University in Chennai, for instance, post-graduate and doctoral programmes are on offer for both employed engineers and teaching faculty in affiliated colleges. They could acquire "super-speciality" post-graduate degrees or take up research leading to a doctorate, over a period of three to five years. Many colleges do sponsor their professors or lecturers to undertake such courses, with a bond to continue to serve them for a specified period of time.

Says Professor P.V.Navaneethakrishnan, formerly of Anna University, who is now Dean (Academic) of a private college: "I know of several professors who made use of the programme and a number of colleges which are keen to sponsor candidates for these courses. The problem lies in attracting talent to the teaching profession. That is the larger issue."

A Chancellor of a deemed university near Chennai insists that within a couple of years of a lecturer joining his institution, he encourages him or her to take up further studies. "We enable them to take just a couple of hours [of classes] a day and then take up studies or research at Anna University... Our university not only sponsors the candidate but provides as much library assistance as possible. We have quite a few faculty members who have made use of this programme."

But more often than not, especially in the rural engineering colleges, retired professors from Government colleges or fresh graduates seem to be the mainstay of the faculty.

In most institutions, the emoluments package may be attractive, and often includes free transport and food, considering the distance. But a majority of the engineering colleges in the southern States are said to be facing the problem of chronic shortage of qualified staff to head departments and occupy the professorial chairs. For courses in subjects such as Nanotechnology, Biomedical Engineering, Biotechnology, Chemical Technology, where do they go for qualified faculty? Are enough bright young people today prepared to take up teaching as a profession?

Armed forces' example

The technical colleges and universities appear to be facing the same problem as, say, the defence forces are in the matter of attracting talent. Some years ago the Army, the Air Force and the Navy embarked on a programme to "catch them young." They identified students in the first or second year of engineering courses and offered scholarships to them on the strength of a bond to join the Services.

Perhaps it is time for colleges and universities to formulate such a programme to spot and nurture talent from within. But then, the package must be really attractive, to beat offers from the IT industry and even the BPO sector.

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