HYDERABAD: At least 400 out of the 660 engineering colleges in Andhra Pradesh which do not fulfill the mandatory requirements related to qualified faculty and infrastructure are likely to face the music shortly as the State government is gearing up to crack the whip against them.
These colleges face the prospect of being ranked poorly in the grading system likely to be introduced by the government from the next academic year based on their facilities and performance.
The government following complaints on these colleges found various deficiencies in their functioning.
It constituted a three-member committee in July last year to thoroughly examine the deficiencies in engineering colleges and suggest remedial measures to strengthen the professional education system.
The committee, comprising Technical Education commissioner K Lakshminarayana, JNTU-Hyderabad vice-chancellor Prof DN Reddy and TEQUIP academic auditor Prof N Prakasa Rao, has completed its study and is expected to submit its report to the government soon.
The grading of colleges is learnt to be one of the major recommendations to be made by the committee.
The committee has observed that a large number of private professional institutions, particularly engineering colleges, have mushroomed in the State in the recent past without having the required infrastructure like classrooms, laboratories and qualified teaching staff.
This has resulted in sub-standard education and low employability of the students who passed out of these institutions. Most of the faculty members in these institutions are recent B.Tech graduates.
Though several colleges have good buildings, they lack laboratories and quality equipment for instruction.
Apart from the grading system, the committee is likely to recommend a qualification test for faculty members and fixing a tuition fee structure based on the grading system to improve quality of education in engineering colleges.
The committee is also likely to make some suggestions to improve employability of engineering graduates.
The committee is learnt to have made some observations related to the low fee structure in the engineering colleges in the state compared to those in the neighbouring states.
Sources, however, said the State government was in no mood to revise the fee structure fearing the huge financial burden it would entail on the exchequer towards scholarships and reimbursement of fee.
Meanwhile, Governor ESL Narasimhan, in his capacity as the Chancellor of the universities in the State, reportedly wrote a letter to Chief Secretary SV Prasad recently seeking a report on the action taken by the State government on colleges that lack infrastructure and qualified faculty.
Source : Indian Express