Below Par Engineering Colleges in Kerala to be Strictly Dealt With

APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University or KTU, as it is commonly known, conducted an academic audit to measure the standard ofEngineering colleges in the Kerala state affiliated to it. The move was prompted by the deteriorating standards in several of the engineering institutes in the state and impose penalties accordingly. The classification of the colleges was done on the scale of 1 to 5 where 1 being below average and 5 being excellent. On the basis of various parameters, the colleges were put under the brackets of 1 to 5.

All the 142 colleges affiliated to KTU were put under the scanner out of which 37 were placed in the “Average” category. 10 colleges were categorised under the “Below Average” category. Centre for Continuing Education Kerala (CCEK) and Cooperative Academy of Professional Education (CAPE) along with some self-financing colleges were put under the “Average” and “Below Average” category. None of the colleges could be put under the “Excellent” bracket. However, most of the Government and Government-aided colleges were able to secure four points to be placed under the “Very Good” category.

The parameters which were taken into consideration to classify the colleges were the teacher-student ratio (as per AICTE norms), qualification of the teaching faculty and infrastructural facilities. Those institutions who performed poorly in the KTU audit have to provide an explanation to the University’s Academic Council. The varsity VC will soon lead a team of a delegation which will inspect those colleges which fared horrendously in the academic audit. If these colleges fail to up the standards, then they will not be given an extension of affiliation.

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Also, for sanctioning new courses, the application of only those colleges will be considered who have obtained NBA accreditation for at least one of their courses. Till date, the state only has 30 engineering colleges that have NBA (National Board of Accreditation) accreditation. Other than this, the application to sanction new courses of only those colleges will be considered who successfully filled up 50% of their total seats during the last three admission sessions. Also, courses that are “Industry Relevant” and job-oriented will be sanctioned from now on.

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There were some other proposals from the Academic Council as well including lateral entry of DVoc candidates to engineering courses and introduction of a review mechanism in the answer script revaluation process. Under the new review mechanism, the students will be given the opportunity to review the outcome on fulfilling certain conditions.