CHENNAI: Of the 13 constituent colleges of Anna University, as many as seven could not fill even 50% of their seats during engineering counselling this year. This has made the university mull the merger of many of these colleges.
The university has 13 constituent colleges, also known as University College of Engineering (UCE), in interior TN and has three regional campus colleges in Madurai, Coimbatore and Tirunelveli.
Though the constituent colleges have been performing poorly for several years now owing to poor infrastructure and faculty shortage, this year’s enrolment has been abysmal. As such, the university has chalked out a plan to merge constituent colleges with poor enrolment rates, sources said.
University data for the past four years show that not a single college out of the 16 (13 constituent colleges and 3 regional campuses) managed to fill 100% of their seats. Only the regional campus college in Coimbatore and UCE in Kancheepuram managed to fill 90% of their seats. Regional campus in Madurai filled 84%, followed by UCE in Tiruchy, which filled 83%. UCE in Tindivanam filled only 55% while UCE in Arni filled just 52%.
Similarly, UCE in Panruti filled only 740 of its 1,620 while UCE in Dindigul filled only 624. UCE in Thoothukudi filled only 615 of its 1,560 seats while UCE in Pudukottai filled only 602 of its 1,620 seats and UCE in Ariyalur only 428. Thirukkuvalai and Ramanathapuram are the worst performers as they managed to fill only 26% and 22% of their seats respectively.
“It’s not wise to run BTech courses in constituent colleges for such a handful of students. In comparison with expenses to maintain the colleges, the earnings are negligible,” said a senior faculty member.
Vice Chancellor R Velraj said he was contemplating merger of colleges with low enrolment rates and would soon submit a proposal to the higher education department. “Merger of constituent colleges is a solution but only after discussions with the higher education officials can I get a clarity as to how we can proceed,” said Velraj.
He added that the process has to be carried out very efficiently without affecting the morale of students and faculty members in these colleges.
Poor performance
Though the constituent colleges have been performing poorly for several years now owing to poor infrastructure, this year’s enrolment has been abysmal