AUT crackdown on errant college

COIMBATORE: Shocked by faculty members and laboratory equipment doing the overnight vanishing act in private engineering colleges, akin to the famed US escapologist-magician Harry Houdini, the Anna University of Technology (AUT) here has decided to crack down on errant institutions.The university has found that at least a dozen institutions which had showed the required number of teachers and necessary laboratory equipment while applying for the university’s affiliation, has only half that number now. “We have received complaints that faculty members who are produced before the affiliation inspection teams are not retained on the college’s rolls once the affiliation is granted. We have decided to conduct surprise inspections in our 200 affiliated engineering colleges and take action against erring institutions,” AUT vice-chancellor M Karunakaran told Express on Sunday.Recently, the university cancelled the practical examination to be conducted in a private college after it found that the institution did not have the necessary equipment in the laboratory to facilitate students to conduct experiments. AUT affiliation director (in-charge) S N Deepa has issued a circular acknowledging the Houdini acts in colleges. “It has been brought to the notice of the vice-chancellor that some of the institutions affiliated to this university are indulging in malpractice like showing faculty members, principals only during the period of affiliation and subsequently relieving them from the institutions,” she said terming the practice as unethical. In a separate circular, AUT Controller of Examination (I/C) M Sakthivel said that an inspection team had found that at the Indus College of Engineering in Alandurai, “many of the equipment/instruments listed for the smooth conduct of practical examinations November/December 2011 were not available at the Soil Mechanics Laboratory (V Semester B E Civil Engineering) and Electronic Design Laboratory (VII Semester B E Electrical and Electronics Engineering).” Karunakaran said the university has instructed the college to purchase the required equipment, train the students properly and subsequently conduct the practical examination.