THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Kerala University (KU) Syndicate will approach the High Court on Monday challenging the decision of the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) to cut the number of seats in three major trades at the University College of Engineering, Kariavattom (UCEK).
A decision in this regard was taken at a syndicate meeting on Saturday. The AICTE had recently directed the varsity to halve the number seats to 33 in three trades each - Electronics and Communication, Computer Science and IT - citing the slump in the admission rate to the college in the past few years. The move drew flak from the teachers and students as slashing 33 seats would affect the academic activities in the college. However, sources said the AICTE move follows poor show by the college in semester examinations. According to Syndicate member K H Babujan, the AICTE decision would affect the reputation of the college and the varsity as well.
“We will move the court on Monday and the paper work in this regard has been completed. We can’t accept the AICTE’s move. The council decided to cut the number of seats citing issues related to payment of teachers’ salary. If the issue is teachers’ salary, then why do they need to cut the number of seats,” Babujan said.
Age limit of lecturers
The Syndicate has again deferred the decision to extend the age limit of contract lecturers in the University Institute of Technology centres from 60 to 65. Babujan said the decision would be taken in the next syndicate meeting. Earlier, citing the Model Code of Conduct in effect for general elections, the Syndicate members had said the decision would be taken on Saturday.
Varsity to begin 7 PG courses
The Syndicate has decided to start seven new PG courses on the Kariavattom campus from the coming academic year. The courses are MA Public Administration, MA West Asian Studies (Arabic), Mcom Global Business Application, MSc Biodiversity Conservation, MSc Applied Statistics and Data Analytics, MSc Data Science and MA Malayalam Kerala Padanam Madhyamapadanam.