Too many colleges, too few students

STATE UPDATE / TAMIL NADU

Drive out of Chennai on the road to Avadi or the road to Mahabalipuram and you'll be struck by the number of engineering colleges that dot the sides of these roads "" eight, on the road to Avadi and 12 on the road to Mahabalipuram.

Drive further on both roads and you'll run into an even larger number of engineering colleges. The Mahabalipuram road runs through Kanchipuram district, which has 61 of them. The Avadi road runs through Tiruvallur district, which has 29 engineering colleges.

Chennai itself has only six engineering colleges because an engineering college within a city's limits has to have a minimum campus area of five acres.

Most engineering colleges have been set up in the districts bordering Chennai because of the high costs of land and the obvious problems in locating land within the city.

What this underlines is the huge number of engineering colleges in Tamil Nadu. The state has over 252 engineering colleges, compared with 200 in Andhra Pradesh, 120 in Maharashtra, 110 in Karnataka and 90 in Kerala.

Indeed, the five states account for more than 75 per cent of the intake of 3,75,000 engineering students. Tamil Nadu itself accounts for 20 per cent of India's engineering college population.

Yet, a large number of these colleges have few students. For the 2004-05 academic session, more than 25,000 of the 75,000 seats available lay vacant. Appallingly, more than 50 of these colleges have been able to admit fewer than 10 students so far.

"Last year, the number of vacant seats was around 22,000. In more than 20 colleges, fewer than 50 students enrolled. This trend is likely to continue until a few of these institutions wind up. Going forward, only the best will survive. The competition is severe, with some colleges offering seats for Rs 15,000, less than half the fee structure prescribed by the Anna University," says J P Gandhi, a career consultant and analyst at Turning Point India, a career guidance and resource centre for engineering college aspirants.

Colleges have to be set up under a non-profitable trust or society in line with the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) guidelines.

Several of the state's engineering colleges sprouted in the 1990s after the central government cleared private investment in engineering colleges in 1984. They were promoted by film stars, former politicians and corporate bigwigs to cash in on the huge demand for engineering education.

Sona College of Technology, which came up in 1997, fits this stereotype. "We had been in the business of technical education for the past 46 years, ever since we started the Thiagarajar Polytechnic College in 1958. Later, we felt that the region needed a quality engineering college. So we started Sona College of Technology," says C Valliappan, vice-chairman of the non-profit Sona College of Technology. The college, registered under the Chockalingam Trust, had 2,400 students last year.

Between 2000 and 2003, close to 80 colleges were set up. After 2002, the state government declined to issue no objection certificates (NOCs) for new colleges.

Even so, several of them sprang up. About 25 colleges are currently running under orders from the high court which gave them a provisional affiliation to function. Only now have promoters woken up to the waning demand. So, no new colleges were set up in 2003-04 and 2004-05.

To set up an engineering college, a businessman has to initially invest Rs 30 crore in buying 10 acres of land in rural areas (five acres in urban centres).

It has to have 30,000-35,000 square feet of space for laboratories, a library, an administration office, a hostel and other facilities. A college will also require working capital of Rs 7-8 crore a year to run its facilities and pay its faculty.

A college will have to enrol about 1,000-1,200 students to break even. In 2003-2004, less than 100 students enrolled for the courses offered at 56 colleges.

"More than 50 per cent of colleges are not breaking even with the fees they collect. They have to employ other methods like donations and charging excess fees to keep their operations running," notes Gandhi. The top 25 to 30 colleges do make money as they have an intake in excess of 1,700 students a year.

"We are unable to break even with the fees prescribed by the AICTE. The fees have to be increased by at least 50 per cent if we are to follow all norms set by them regarding faculty and infrastructure," argues Valliappan.

The bigger colleges, with good facilities and faculty, charge more than the prescribed fees. The state government prescribes a fee based on the recommendations of a committee headed by retired high court judge Justice A Raman, set up by the Tamil Nadu government for fixing fees for self-financed colleges.

The fee for 2004-2005 is Rs 32,500 for non-accredited courses and Rs 40,000 for courses accredited by the National Board of Accreditation. Colleges charge between Rs 1 and Rs 4 lakh as capitation fees under various heads, like building funds or special fees without issuing a receipt, to rake in extra cash.

Most, though not all colleges that are functioning with the high court's permission have inadequate infrastructure, inexperienced faculty and most of the time less than the 15:1 student-to-faculty ratio prescribed by AICTE.

"Many colleges pay lecturers salaries as low as Rs 3,000 in spite of AICTE having prescribed Rs 8,000 as the minimum salary. As a result they are unable to attract and retain good talent," says E Balagurusamy, vice-chancellor of Anna University.

Anna University is in charge of prescribing the syllabus, administering examinations and monitoring colleges so that they follow AICTE guidelines. It has told eight colleges this year that they can't admit students as they were found flouting AICTE guidelines.

Recently, it suspended affiliation for three years and forbade Rajaas Engineering College, Jayamatha Engineering College, Joe Suresh Engineering College and the Sardar Raja College of Engineering from admitting students.

"More than 50 per cent of engineers who pass out from colleges are either unemployed or underemployed as a majority of them lack good quality professional skills which big corporations require," adds Balagurusamy.