All colleges will have to follow the uniform syllabus, irrespective of their autonomous status, Minister for Higher Education K. Ponmudy reiterated on Wednesday after a meeting with the heads of autonomous institutions.
A memorandum that the autonomous colleges submitted to the Minister argued that imposing a common syllabus went against the regulations of the University Grants Commission in respect of autonomy. This would severely hamper the performance and standards of education imparted by the autonomous institutions, they said.
They also said the Tamil Nadu State Council for Higher Education (TANSCHE) Act, 1992, was limited to coordinating higher education institutions in the State and recommending reforms or measures to determine standards in accordance with the UGC guidelines.
However, Mr. Ponmudy, who met with the heads of these institutions later, said that barring one or two colleges, the rest had agreed to follow the common syllabus that TANSCHE had proposed. “90% of the colleges have already implemented it. The rest have assured us that they would follow it from next year,” he said.
The Minister reiterated that the Department of Higher Education had the power to implement changes in syllabi if warranted.
Engineering admissions
In the first round of counselling for admission to engineering courses, 16,516 candidates have been allotted seats, including 1,019 candidates under the 7.5% preferential reservation for government school students. As many as 15,497 candidates of the general stream have also been allotted seats. The Minister said the candidates would begin paying their fees on Thursday.
As many as 1,11, 300 students have been admitted to arts and sciences colleges, and 56,007 of them were women. The Minister attributed the large number of women getting admitted to colleges to awareness of Pudhumai Penn, a scheme that incentivises higher education for girls.
