In an interview with R. SUJATHA, Anil D. Sahasrabudhe, chairman of the AICTE, talks about the way ahead for the Council.
During his first public meeting after taking
over as chairman of the All India Council of Technical Education, Anil D.
Sahasrabudhe dwelt largely on improving faculty and autonomy for all colleges.
A former director of College of Engineering, Pune, he was involved in improving
the college’s administration and transforming it. He is expected to initiate
sweeping changes in the AICTE also.
What is your plan for the next three years?
We need to concentrate on the faculty
development programme. They need to be trained right from the time of their
induction and during their service. We need to empower them, provide support to
help them consider autonomy and change their mindset, work ethics and culture.
These are all big challenges that have to be addressed.
You mentioned about a forum for colleges and
teachers in the AICTE portal…
I was saying that teachers, institutes and
administrations, who had evolved good practices that had improved their
college’s performances, could share their best practices and other colleges
could start adopting it. Every good thing that is happening in one place could
be adopted in hundred other places. The idea is, we may not have invented
something but we could make use of an invention.
What do you expect will change if colleges
are given autonomy?
The review committee report on AICTE
envisages sweeping changes in our functioning. The report has suggested that
all colleges in the country be given autonomy. Accordingly, instead of the
university syllabus, each college can formulate its own curriculum based on the
immediate requirement. Employability is a challenge because universities have a
common syllabus for all the 500 - 600 colleges. Instead if colleges opt to
cater to certain segments they would have specialised content which would cater
to the needs of the society and the industry.
When autonomy is given, there is a lot of
responsibility on the part of the institute as well. Though the committee has
suggested autonomy, the change can be implemented in a phased manner, allowing
good performers to consider autonomy. When poor-performing colleges see the
change autonomy has brought about they will follow in the footsteps of
successful colleges and may be two or five years down the line, become
autonomous. Gradually in about 10 - 15 years, all colleges could become
autonomous. Even training of principals and faculty on making use of autonomy
effectively may help. One of the case studies is the College of Engineering in
Pune. The nine years of transformation showed the kind of lab and governance
structure that could be attained. These can be adopted and tweaked as per
requirements.
When engineering colleges are owned by
politicians or politically influential persons, can these changes be
implemented?
When well-performing institutions come into
existence, students will start moving there. And then automatically
poor-performing colleges will have to learn a lesson from that and follow good
practices or they will have to close down. There is no other alternative. It is
not a question of who is running the colleges. Since the data about colleges
are available and there is absolute transparency it is only a matter of time
before non-performing colleges are weeded out since students will not opt for
them. If colleges are not committed to improving quality they will die a
natural death.
Economically weak students in rural Tamil
Nadu who are enrolled in engineering colleges for a nominal fee, later find out
that the college has neither good infrastructure nor faculty. They come to Anna
University with complaints of lack of facilities, infrastructure…
If there are formal, official complaints, we
can act. We have an online portal for lodging complaints. We assume that there
is honesty and integrity when colleges upload data. Based on that data we close
the branch or reduce the intake. If the data given is incorrect, we have no way
of checking it directly. We don’t send teams physically to check if all 3,800
colleges in the country have the facilities. But if there are specific
complaints that a college is making claims when they don’t have the facilities,
we do send our teams to inspect the colleges and take action.
Have you come across people complaining about
colleges?
Students do complain. In the last ten days
itself, I have received at least three or four emails making such complaints.
When we get anonymous complaints we do not act on them as someone could be
acting out of vendetta. We believe that formal official complaints contain
truth. As a regulatory agency, we have to verify if the complaint about a
college is genuine. When teams are sent to the college to conduct a physical
check, whatever the outcome, we have to act on it.
Do affiliating universities have the
authority to act against colleges when complaints are made?
Universities also have a role to play as they
are the affiliating body, ultimately. AICTE might have given approval for
starting a course. If the courses are not run properly it is equally the
responsibility of the university and if they propose that the courses are not
being run properly, AICTE must also come into the picture. We cannot shirk responsibility.
There are reports of faculty being
transferred between colleges in one group or being terminated without any prior
notice. How will AICTE address this?
Some amount of dropout is expected. This is
the norm even in industries, especially with high-paying jobs, as people keep
changing their jobs. If the dropout is not within the limit of 10-15 per cent,
something is wrong. This has to be identified and necessary action taken.
Probably that has not happened so far, going by the magnitude and quantum of
complaints.
But do you get complaints from teachers that
they have been terminated?
No, no. So far we have not received
complaints from teachers but students often write on the portal that the
quality of teaching is not good. There are fewer teachers. Many a time, faculty
say that they have not received their salary on time. I have just taken over
recently and such complaints may come in, but I have not received any so far.
The faculty of university-run and affiliated
colleges feel that their students need to be spoon-fed unlike the IITs...
Student intake is qualitatively different
between the IITs and university-run colleges. When they enter, they are
probably at the same level or a little better but there is not much difference.
By the time they graduate the difference becomes conspicuous. Many colleges are
not providing enough opportunities to channelise students’ energies. IITs are
residential institutions where students are constantly interacting with each
other even after class hours — be it in the mess or in the playground.
The kind of interaction and ambience that
happens makes them smarter. Universities could make some changes to empower
students — like keeping the libraries and laboratories open till late in the
evening. The day scholars will then remain on campus longer and the time they
interact with each other will be longer. There are many competitions such as
the BAHA Society of Automotive Engineers, satellite programmes, robotics and
Intel competitions, for student empowerment. To participate in these
activities, students need time beyond class hours. If labs and classrooms are
made available beyond the class hours, students will have the opportunity to
come up with wonderful ideas and do better than even IIT students.
Gradually, all colleges could be autonomous.
Source | The Hindu | 11 August 2015
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