The Hindu : Front Page : `Bring self-financing engineering colleges under territorial varsities'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jun 02, 2006

Front Page

Front Page

`Bring self-financing engineering colleges under territorial varsities'

R. Krishnamoorthy

Experts moot centralised body for making need-based innovations

TIRUCHI:

With the Anna University under pressure to revert to unitary status for safeguarding its lofty teaching and research standards, academics insist that the Government should seriously consider the option of bringing the nearly 250 self-financing engineering colleges once again under the fold of territorial universities, for better administration.

Creation of a centralised advisory technical body with Anna University faculty as think tank has been suggested to formulate a uniform benchmark for all territorial universities with enough scope for making need-based innovations.

In any case, the presence of the Director of Technical Education as ex-officio Chairman of Boards of Engineering studies will serve the purpose.

A reasoning put forth for a change is that though the Anna University could bring about uniformity in terms of syllabus and admissions, in effect, the examinations and valuation are conducted only zone-wise. There has been no notable enhancement in the quality of candidates. Hence, decentralisation of academic administration, by way of entrusting the task of academic monitoring to territorial universities, will certainly be a better option, points out M. Chidambaram, Director, National Institute of Technology - Tiruchi.

"The compulsion for the Anna University, ever since it was upgraded with an affiliating status in December 2001, to stretch its manpower for the purpose of inspections and academic administration, has taken its toll. Much time and energy is spent only on monitoring the self-financing colleges. The quality of research at the Anna University has taken a beating," adds the Vice-Chancellor of Bharathidasan University, C. Thangamuthu.

Territorial universities can be better placed to administer self-financing engineering colleges and enhance the standard of education by starting their own departments in engineering specialisations, says Prof. Thangamuthu, citing the existence of Bharathidasan Institute of Technology on the university campus. There must be constant innovation, he feels, noting that absolute uniformity in syllabi is an obstruction to quality upgradation.

Both, Prof. Thangamuthu and Dr. Chidambaram are certain that the Anna University cannot better the situation by starting regional centres.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail