Anna University to bring in stringent rules to monitor affiliate colleges

CHENNAI: With many colleges unable to fill even 5 per cent of engineering seats even after the counselling this year, Anna University is likely to bring new amendments to bring in stringent affiliation rules and process.

Currently, more than 400 engineering colleges are affiliated with Anna University, which provides about 1.75 lakh seats under government quota this year. After three rounds of counselling, about 1.31 lakh students will join various engineering colleges this year, including Anna University and its department colleges.

A senior Higher Education Department official, seeking anonymity, told DT Next that around 30 institutions, including Anna University, filled 100 per cent of the seats, 150 colleges filled 75 - 90 per cent of their seats and 170 colleges filled over 50 per cent of the seats.

He said, “More than 100 engineering colleges affiliated with Anna University got less than 40 per cent admissions this year. More than 20 colleges got admission between 1-7 per cent.” He added that the exact number of students who joined will be known by the end of this week.

A senior professor from Anna University said that though the institutions have imposed strict rules to provide affiliation to the management engineering colleges, they still could not perform well.

“Therefore, the amendments might include physically inspecting all the poorly performing colleges regularly to determine whether the management had produced correct details of student strength, pass percentage, number of students placed and faculty positions. Currently, only surprise checks are done,” the senior professor explained.

Stating that the affiliated colleges, which indulged in irregularities, will be given a short period of notice to rectify their mistake, he said, “The affiliation will be cancelled for a long period if they do not abide by the instructions and rules within the specified period.”

The official said that since Anna University is operating without vice-chancellors, the decision of the amendments to grant affiliation to the colleges will have to get approval from the Senate members and other authorities.

Admitting that the state has excess engineering colleges, Professor Arul Aram, president of the Anna University Teachers Association, said if strict rules were imposed, about 50 per cent of engineering colleges would have to be closed. He also indicated that there should be no political interference in opening new engineering colleges.

Pointing out that the poor results of engineering colleges were due to fewer and unqualified faculty members, he said, “The recent scam involving teaching staff indulged in multiple employment in colleges was also due to poor revenue of the colleges.”

P Thirunavukkarasu, vice chairman of the Association of University Teachers (AUT), alleged, “There is also great scam in appointing college professors. This has to be monitored and stopped immediately for the future of higher education in the state.”