Between 2004 and 2008, when Y.C. Simhadri and L. Venugopal Reddy were the Vice-Chancellors of the Andhra University, there was a proposal to convert the Andhra University College of Engineering (AUCOE) into an IIT or Centre of Excellence. The proposal was in principle accepted by the Central government, as AUCOE was then rated very high among the university-run engineering colleges in India. However, it did not materialise.
The same AUCOE was ranked 98 by the NIRF (National Institutional Ranking Framework) recently.
The ranking has not gone well with the senior professors. “The SRKR Engineering College, Bhimavaram, an affiliate of AUCOE, is ahead of us with 81st rank,” says a senior professor of the Department of Computer Science and Systems Engineering.
Basically, the NIRF has set five parameters—teacher learning and resources, research and professional practices, graduation outcome, outreach and inclusivity and perceptions.
“In all the five parameters, AU did not score well, primarily we were not prepared for the NIRF questionnaire model and secondly, the departments concerned did not respond as desired with the details asked for. Probably, if the response was better and we had followed everything as asked, then our overall ranking for the university which was 69 and the AUCOE ranking would have been much better,” says V. Umamaheswara Rao, Registrar of the university.
Faculty-student ratio
This apart, the faculty-student ratio of the AUCOE appears to have pushed down the ranking. The desired ratio of the NIRF is 1:10 and the college reported 1:34.
P.S. Avadhani, Principal of the AUCOE, says there are only 143 faculty members for a strength of about 4,500.
What appears to have brought the college ranking down is the research and professional practices criterion. “The strength of a university or a technology college lies in its research and consultancy. Over the last few years, research and consultancy have taken a back seat. Moreover, the people responsible did not report the actual figures. Many research papers and the patents that the senior professors have submitted were ‘not’ highlighted in the NIRF document,” says a senior professor.
Coming to the graduation outcome, which is primarily based on placements, AUCOE has tottered in the last couple of years. It had a good track record of about 65% to 70% and it dropped to 30% in the last few years. It is only now in this year that things are looking brighter. This is one area where other colleges, especially from the private sector, have scored heavily,” says the Head of the Department of CSE, P.V.G.D. Prasad Reddy.
Poor outreach
Another area where both AUCOE and AU have scored badly is the outreach and inclusivity and public perception. The AUCOE, despite being a public institution and in service of the poor, is not able to highlight its services and scored a mere 16%. And when others could gather 7,000 to 10,000 public perceptions, including the feedback from parents, AUCOE could manage just feedback from 912 sources.
Andhra University spent about ₹8 crore a couple of years ago to establish a computer department. Senior professors feel that the department should be utilised to act as the nodal department for processing all information.
“Details such as achievements, happenings, research papers and placements of all departments across the university should be recorded at the computer department and it should serve as the nerve centre, so that such faults of not reporting the right figures can be avoided both by AUCOE and AU, and both can get a better ranking next year. But somehow the department has been under-utilised till now,” says a senior professor from the engineering college.
