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MADRAS MISCELLANY

Loss of historic identity

Several eminent engineering institutions in the State stand to lose their historic identity if the Anna University goes through with a plan to abolish the individual identity of its constituent and affiliated colleges once the Government scheme to divide the University into four regional sections comes into force. Degree certificates, I'm told, will no longer mention the college attended by the graduate; only Anna University, Madras, Coimbatore, etc. will be mentioned. This, say both alumni and students, will not help students going in for higher education elsewhere in India or abroad, as many such institutions give greater recognition to the long-established colleges affiliated to the Anna University than the newer ones.

Many alumni are even more concerned with the fact that the present proposal will send into oblivion the names of institutions that are part of the heritage of Madras and engineering in India.

The College of Engineering, Guindy, has a history going back more than 210 years. Founded in 1794 as a Survey School, it is the oldest technical institution outside Europe. The Alagappa College of Technology, with its pioneering courses in chemical, leather and textile technologies, owes its genesis to Rm. Alagappa Chettiar. The Madras Institute of Technology, President Abdul Kalam's alma mater, pioneered aeronautical and automobile engineering and owes its beginnings to C. Rajam, who sold his mansion in what was Edward Elliot's Road to create facilities for higher technical education. And the School of Architecture and Planning was one of the pioneering institutions in its field in India. These four colleges, the latter three set up in the 1940s and 1950s, were the constituent colleges of Anna University when it was established as a residential university in 1978. When the University became an Affiliating University, several other colleges of repute dating to half a century ago, like the PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore, became affiliated to it. If all these colleges were to lose their identity and become mere departments of Anna University, it would be a tragedy. Not just culture and handsome buildings, our natural wealth and monuments are our heritage; institutions are too, and need to be protected.

When a similar proposal was suggested in 1985, the alumni of the constituent colleges protested and received a written assurance from the then Vice Chancellor that the names of the constituent institutions would be preserved for all time, several alumni of the College of Engineering, Guindy, tell me. I hope the names will survive without the need to protest again.

S. MUTHIAH

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