The concept of ranking colleges, by a government authority, to be used for the admission process has long been controversial. Those colleges that were ranked lower have been protesting against this.
Recently Anna University released the rank list for the 481 colleges in its fold. Nine colleges in and around Chennai appear in the top 20, with College of Engineering Guindy, being first. This is based on the average of the college’s cut-off marks for admission to Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) in the last five years for Open Category (OC) candidates. The reason given is that the ranking will indicate the preference of top achievers. The earlier system was based on the college’s pass percentage.
Again, the choice of CSE as the basis for the ranking is said to be that it is the most preferred by top-ranking candidates. There are two fallacies in this assumption. One, colleges that do not offer CSE will not find a place on the list. This means candidates will not consider these colleges for no fault of theirs. Second, Anna University should not propagate the idea that a particular branch is most favoured. Many students may aspire to study other engineering branches and this ranking will not be of much use to them.
Instead rank lists of colleges based on all (or most of the different branches) would be better. Another advantage of branch-wise rank lists is that a college that ranks low in one list may be better placed in another, thus reducing possible grievances. If there are certain branches of engineering offered only by a few colleges, they may not be considered for the ranking. This process may be strenuous, but will be worth it.
The writer is a former Professor and Head, Entrance Exams and Admission, Anna University, Chennai
