Following the recent tug of war between the Anna University administration and the Higher Education department over conducting Tamil Nadu Engineering Admission and the university likely to get Institute of Eminence status soon, self-financing engineering colleges in Tamil Nadu have decided to approach the higher education department with a demand of creating a new government technical university called 'Tamil Nadu Technical University' and bringing them under its control.
A decision in this regard was taken at the meeting of the Consortium of Self Financing Professional, Arts and Science College of Tamil Nadu held at Chennai on Tuesday. The association is planning to submit a memorandum to the government in a week."We pay around Rs 1,200 crores to the university in terms of examination fee, affiliation fee and registration fee, which is only used for development of the university. But, the university shows step-motherly treatment towards the private colleges," said the chairman of a private engineering college who attended the meeting.
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"The Anna University administration is not in good terms with the higher education department on conducting Tamil Nadu Engineering Admission. In terms of evaluation also we are facing a problem, as university declined to give grace marks, despite that fact that many questions were out of the syllabus. Due to this, private colleges in rural areas suffered from low pass percentage. Introduction of the break system affected students," he added. He further said, previously, through a government order all private engineering colleges were brought under the control of Anna University. Similarly, colleges can be disaffiliated from Anna University and affiliated with Tamil Nadu Technical University, to be set up by the government, the chairman suggested."Once Anna University gets Institute of Eminence status, it has to concentrate on teaching and research. That is also the reason why we demand a separate technical university to affiliate self-financing college," he added. It should be noted that the association had earlier approached Anna University asking for separate Registrar and Controller of Examination to handle self-financing engineering colleges.
Commenting on their demand, former Vice Chancellor of Anna University E Balagurusamy, Anna University getting Institute of Eminence status only indicates that the quality of the university has come to such a level and private colleges should be very happy that they are getting a degree from such a university. Private colleges do not want this present Vice-Chancellor, who is a tough and honest person, who brought examination, curriculum reforms, he added. Saying that the State government should not yield to their request, Balagurusamy felt, in case government accepts their demand it will be a suicidal attempt and will ruin technical education which is already in a bad shape.
