TIRUCHI: The newly proposed Anna Universities at Tiruchi and Coimbatore would start functioning during the course of the current academic year, State Minister for Higher Education K. Ponmudi said on Wednesday.

The process of identifying Vice Chancellors for the technical varsities had commenced. The number of engineering colleges to be affiliated to these universities, set to function from Bharathidasan Institute of Technology, Tiruchi, and Government College of Technology, Coimbatore, was being arrived at, he told presspersons.

The purpose behind trifurcating the Anna University at Chennai and bringing in the Common University Act was to foster high-quality research and implement high teaching standards, the Minister said.

He added that towards this end, the State Government had decided to make it mandatory for all engineering colleges to acquire accreditation from the National Board of Accreditation of the All India Council for Technical Education , and obtain EDUSAT connectivity.

Dr. Ponmudi, however, ruled out financial support from the State Government to aided Arts and Science Colleges of long standing in the event of their transforming into Deemed-to-be-Universities. This, he said, was in deference to the suggestions of the National Assessment and Accreditation Council after re-accreditation. "Let such institutions obtain funds from the University Grants Commission ," he said.

When his comment was sought on the complaint of industries about poor quality human resource churned out by higher educational institutions, Dr. Ponmudi said it was in this direction that the Government had allotted funds to provide special coaching in communication skills to students from socially and economically backward sections.

He also felt that incorporating modules on life skills and communication into the curriculum was necessary well beyond the first year of engineering programmes.

On the offer of M.Phil programmes through distance education mode by several universities despite the Government restriction, Dr. Ponmudi said the directive would be implemented strictly from the next academic year.

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