Tamil Nadu - Tirunelveli   

Call for three-tier system in higher education

Staff Reporter

To enable community college students to take up research programmes

TIRUNELVELI: A three-tier system in higher education should be introduced to enable students of community colleges to take up research programmes so that poor and less-privileged students can enter the mainstream programmes offered by institutions of higher education, the member, University Grants Commission, Rev. Fr. Xavier Alphonse SJ, said.

He appealed to the Syndicate Committees of universities to forward a proposal for an amendment in the Indian Universities Act enabling students with Secondary School Leaving Certificate qualification to get admission in diploma programmes of community colleges; it would substantially increase the number of students getting higher education.

Rev. Alphonse was speaking at a seminar in Manonmaniam Sundaranar University on `Community College System' on Friday. "The three-tier system should enable students admitted in 180 community colleges in 21 States to get diploma, associate degree and then degree so that they can join post-graduate courses and ultimately Ph.D. programmes. The vertical mobility of the disadvantaged in higher education should be ensured," he noted. Some students of Community Colleges, which were established to promote equity and access to higher education for the deprived, had been employed even at call centres with a salary of Rs. 8,000.

If one-third of the funds allocation, being made to mainstream education, was provided to the Community Colleges and the lateral entry system from Community Colleges to mainstream education encouraged, it would substantially increase the number of students studying in the institutes for higher education from the existing 7 million to 20 million, he said.

VC on stigma

The Vice-Chancellor, MSU, Cynthia Pandian, stressed that the quality of education being offered by the Community Colleges was not inferior and such a stigma should be removed.

While appealing to the funding agencies of higher education to finance the Community Colleges, Dr. Cynthia urged the administrators of these colleges to have a scientifically structured curriculum, experienced faculty members and quality teaching-learning system.

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