Dr. P. Mannar Jawahar, Vice-Chancellor of Anna University-Chennai, has his priorities clear. He wants the departments in the university, with their highly qualified faculty members, to concentrate on research. But he is keen that private engineering colleges affiliated to the university concentrate on teaching. My dream is to make Anna University the number one in the country. It now ranks eighth among the engineering institutions in the country, he said .
As Director of the Centre for University-Industry Collaboration, Anna University, before he became Vice-Chancellor, Jawahar was responsible for placement and training activities at the university. He was instrumental in starting the Tamil Nadu State-level Placement Programme (TNSLPP) for students in self-financed engineering colleges in the State. The TNSLPP has helped 22,000 students from 222 engineering colleges and 9,000 students from the university departments get jobs in software and core engineering companies.
Anna University has 24 undergraduate and over 100 postgraduate programmes. From time to time, the university has started postgraduate programmes in emerging areas. Jawahar sees a great opportunity in a lot of IT and automobile companies coming up in and around Chennai. A number of IT companies are already doing research in both software and hardware development. Instead of their doing research independently, they can set up incubation centres at Anna University. We will provide them space and infrastructure. We can use their knowledge. Our students can help them, said Jawahar. It will be a win-win situation for both industry and Anna University.
Instead of concentrating on basic courses, he said, he was keen on starting advanced courses in the IT and automobile sectors. For instance, he wants the university to begin an M.E. in automotive electronics or courses focussing on the reduction of pollution from vehicles or the development of battery-operated and solar-powered vehicles.
However, Jawahar prefers the private, self-financed colleges to concentrate on teaching. Most of these colleges employ those with undergraduate degrees in engineering as teachers. Improving the quality of faculty members is very important, he asserted.
Tamil Nadu has 278 engineering colleges. The All-India Council for Technical Education has given permission for 71 more engineering colleges from this academic year. Of the total 349, only about 50 would have good infrastructure, including computer centres, laboratories, a well-stocked library, and sports and hostel facilities. Another 300 are also there, where students join and write their examinations. They do not have good infrastructure. They have to appoint quality faculty and build infrastructure, said Jawahar. The university would help the affiliated colleges with poor infrastructure rectify their defects.
Jawahar said the demand for mechanical engineering and civil engineering seats had gone up now, contrary to the trend that was observed for several years. In Tamil Nadu, nearly 46,000 students join circuit branches such as electronics and communication engineering, computer science and engineering, and electronics and electrical engineering every year. Another 16,000 join the B.Tech course in mechanical engineering and about 4,000 for civil engineering, automobile engineering and chemical technology.
T.S. SubramanianCOMMents
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