Higher Education Minister K. Ponmudy on Thursday blamed Governor-Chancellor R.N. Ravi for the delay in holding convocation to various State universities which has led to over nine lakh college students awaiting degree certificates despite having completed their courses.
According to him, 9,29,542 students from across 12 State-run universities, excluding Anna University, had not received their degrees owing to the delay in conducting the convocation.
The Minister told reporters in Chennai that the University of Madras had last conducted convocation on May 16, 2022, for candidates who graduated in 2021.
“This is because the Governor (who is the Chancellor) wants a Central Minister as chief guest,” he said. They (Ministers) were unable to give dates and this was holding up the convocation, he charged. “There are veteran educationists and Vice-Chancellors in Tamil Nadu. I request the Governor to come forward and conduct the convocations,” the Minister said.
V-C appointments
He blamed the Governor for the delay in appointing a Vice-Chancellor of Bharathiar University.
According to Mr. Ponmudy, the Higher Education department had complied with the university statutes and constituted a search panel with a Governor’s nominee, government nominee and a Syndicate nominee.
“We sent it on October 19, 2022, but till date nothing has happened. The Governor wants us to include a nominee from the University Grants Commission. What is the necessity? He is delaying it,” the Minister alleged.
“It is the same story for Tamil Nadu Education University. We have followed the Act and he is deliberately delaying the process. He is going beyond what is stipulated in the Act. We maintain that it is wrong,” Mr. Ponmudy contended.
Engineering counselling
The Minister said that this year the Tamil Nadu Engineering Admission Committee has received 1,87,693 applications for counselling under single window system to be conducted by the Directorate of Technical Education.
The Minister said 18,610 more applications have been received as compared to last year. He attributed it to the State government’s schemes such as Naan Mudhalvan to develop skills.
Under the 7.5% horizontal reservation for government school students, 31,445 candidates have applied, which is 7,852 more than last year.
A total of 394 students with disabilities this year (217 last year) and 5,024 sportspersons’ applications have been received whereas last year it was 3,081. As many as 1,615 wards of ex-servicemen have applied as compared to 1,084 applications last year.
Mr. Ponmudy said over 70 engineering books had been translated into Tamil for civil and mechanical engineering courses. “We are taking efforts to bring out Tamil translation of textbooks. We will soon release the books,” he said.
