6 days ago
MP's plea to give up plans to merge Anna University's Regional Office with Tirunelveli Government Engineering College
Member of Parliament C. Robert Bruce has appealed to the Minister for Higher Education Govi Chezhiaan not to merge the Anna University's Regional Office here with the Tirunelveli Government Engineering College considering the welfare of the rural students of this region and the teaching and non-teaching staff working there.
In a memorandum submitted to the Minister recently, Mr. Bruce said the government was contemplating to merge the Anna University's Tirunelveli Regional Office, which is now offering five courses and Master of Business Administration programme to 393 students, with Tirunelveli Government Engineering College. Though late Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi established it as separate Anna University in 2007 for providing quality education to the rural students with low cut-off marks from southern State, it was later transformed into a 'Regional Office' of Anna University with its headquarters in Chennai by the AIADMK government.
Moreover, the AIADMK government also scrapped the postgraduate and the Master of Computer Application courses offered by Anna University's Regional Office. Consequently, 185 students were denied the opportunity of doing their postgraduate programmes and MCA.
If this Regional Office is merged with Tirunelveli Government Engineering College, it will badly affect the students being trained under the Chief Minister's 'Naan Mudhalvan' scheme. Moreover, the merger will also affect 70 non-teaching staff working in the Regional Office now.
Above all, the 33 research guides of Anna University's Regional Office including 20 women will have to be transferred to some other colleges and it will deny the students, especially the women, hoping of doing their Ph.D. in Tirunelveli.
Hence, the State government, should allow the Anna University's Regional Office to function here as separate entity and reintroduce the MCA and other postgraduate programmes, Mr. Bruce appealed.
