Plan to shake up Anna tech Universities?

COIMBATORE: Strong indications that the State Govern­ment is mulling merging the five Anna Universities of Te­chnology (AUTs) establi­shed during the previous DMK regime in Tamil Nadu has put the vice-chancellors in a fix. Several academicians, in fact, oppose the move.It is widely expected that the issue of merging these institutions would figure in the agenda of the Cabinet meeting on Monday.According to informed sources in the higher education ministry, alternatively, the government might consider stripping the AUTs in Coimbatore, Tiruchy, Tirunelveli, Chennai and Madurai of their powers to affiliate engineering colleges and retain them as unitary universities. All the engineering colleges in the State could be brought under the premier Anna University in Chennai, restoring status quo ante (2007-08).If cleared, the decision could be announced in the Governor’s address to the new Legislative Assembly on June 3.A section of the academia is against disturbing the pre­sent setup of decentralised control of engineering colleges. However, another section felt that at least three AUTs need an administrative overhaul as the competency levels of the vice-chancellors there is below par.“Closing down the AUTs would have serious implications for students and technical education as a whole. In Coimbatore and Tiruchy, one batch of students had just graduated with a degree awarded under the name of the AUT. These students would find it difficult to enroll in foreign universities for further studies as official letters would not bear the name of the AUT if they are merged. All the AUTs follow their own curriculum and students will find the migration to a uniform curriculum a big hurdle,” a vice-chancellor of an AUT told Express.Some of the AUTs have already submitted proposals to the University Grants Commission seeking grants under Section 12 B of the UGC Act under the next plan period. A merger would halt the flow of funds. Besides, almost all vice-chancellors of the AUTs had flown abroad and inked MoUs with foreign universities and their implementation would be hampered.