More often than not, the higher education scene in the southern state of Tamil Nadu (pop. 62 million) resembles a no-holds-barred contest between the state government and several pressure groups in the education sector. Thus when last May (2008), the state government announ-ced its intent to convert five government colleges — Presidency College and Queen Mary’s College, Chennai; the Government Arts and Science Colleges for Men and Women, Kumbakonam, and the Government Arts College, Coimbatore — into unitary universities, the proposal was strenuously opposed by several government teacher and student unions, and thus remained unimplemented. This year, the state government is determined to implement the proposal, and once again the Tamil Nadu Government Collegiate Teachers Association (TNGCTA) comprising 2,500 members, has raised the banner of revolt.
In deference to the protests of teachers, following a meeting of principals and teachers from govern-ment and government-aided arts and science colleges and university vice chancellors on July18 convened by higher education minister K.Ponmudy, a five-member committee comprising former Anna University vice chancellors M. Anandakrishnan and V.C. Kulandaisamy, and P. Jagadeesan, former vice chancellor of Bharathidasan University, was constituted to study the proposal afresh, conduct public hearings and submit its report within a month.
According to state government sources, converting the government colleges into unitary universities will enable them to enjoy functional academic autonomy, introduce new courses and revamp their curriculums. Unsurprisingly, managements of the colleges are delighted. “This is a welcome initiative. Now we can approach the University Grants Commission for funds to improve infrastructure and introduce new courses instead of depending on the state government for everything,” says Prof. T.R.A. Devakumar, principal, Presidency College, Chennai, which has 4,000 students, mostly from socio-economically backward classes, on its rolls.
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This enthusiasm is not shared by members of the TNGCTA, who suspect that once the government colleges are converted into autonomous univer-sities, the state government will lose control and won’t be able to prevent the levy of higher tuition fees, which would adversely affect poor and backward class students who comprise 90 percent of the 15,000 students enroled in these five colleges. Association spokespersons express apprehension that undergraduate degree programmes will be neglected and the universities will focus on postgraduate courses and research. Perhaps more to the point, they are apprehensive about losing their job security and benefits as state government employees.
Given that only Presidency College, Chennai, Government Arts College, Coimbatore and the Government Arts and Science College for Men in Kumbakonam, which are over a century old, have a reputation for dispensing acceptable — though far from out-standing — undergraduate education, monitors of the higher education scene doubt whether conversion of the five colleges into unitary universities will improve the quality of education delivered to their students. It’s no secret that the state’s 69 government-funded colleges are severely cash-strapped, with 1,500 faculty positions lying vacant for a long time. Even the five government colleges on which the government plans to bestow unitary university status have 350 teacher vacancies and principals have not been appointed in four of them for over a year.
“The five government colleges that are proposed to be converted into unitary universities are basking in past glory and have not made any significant contribution to earn university status. The state government should first fill teacher vacancies and provide the requisite infrastructure and other facilities in these colleges before making grand plans to transform them into unitary universities. The general impression is that since it cannot do so, it has decided to wash its hands off them by magically upgrading them into composite universities,” says D. Victor, former director of collegiate education and currently director, Academy for Quality and Excellence in Higher Education, Chennai.
Spokespersons of the higher education department say the state government is following the recommen-dations of the National Knowledge Commission report published in January 2007, which says that India needs to increase the number of universities from 431 currently to 1,500 by 2015.
Wish it were that easy!
Hemalatha Raghupathi (Chennai)