The five-year integrated M. Tech course which was being offered by the Centre for Film and Electronic Media Studies (CFEMS) in Madurai Kamaraj University is being wound up causing anxiety to students who are presently studying this course.
The M. Tech course, which had no precedence in the country was launched in 2012 under the initiative of the then Vice-Chancellor Kalyani Mathivanan.
More than ₹ten crore worth equipment were procured. A preview theatre was built and Academy-award winning sound engineer Resul Pookutty came to inaugurate the recording studios.
After six years, two batches of students are yet to receive their degrees. Now the university has decided to stop offering the M. Tech. in Film and Electronic Studies course from this academic year, causing anxiety to the roughly 70 students presently studying in second to fifth year.
The university has decided to disband CFEMS and instead offer a two-year M. Sc. course in Film and Electronic Media through its School of Media Studies. However, admission to this course is unlikely to begin this year owing to delay in approvals, sources said.
Importantly, a proposal has been made to rent the expensive production and post-production infrastructure available at CFEMS to the film industry to generate revenue for the university, which has made the students even more agitated.
Speaking to The Hindu , a final year student said that it felt as if the university had abandoned them.
“It is an expensive course, costing us more than ₹50,000 a year. With the MKU itself in a confusion over whether the M. Tech. programme has proper recognition, we are worried about our future,” he said.
A fourth year student pointed out that the course was mentioned in the prospectus as a B. Tech. plus M. Tech programme.
“We were told that we can opt to leave the course after three years with just a B. Tech. degree. However, after joining, we realised that it was not the case,” he said.
Another final year student, showing pictures taken with his mobile phone, said that some expensive equipment, costing several lakhs, were infested with termites. “The equipment available here are suitable for professionally shooting a movie. But they are not maintained properly,” he said.
A senior faculty member said that by correcting the issues related to recognition of the M. Tech. programme and with state-of-the-art facilities available here, the course could be a unique opportunity for aspiring students from southern districts. “Some short films made by students have won awards at national level competitions,” he said. “If they are offering it as a two-year M. Sc programme, it will be more theory-oriented. Moreover, it will have a lot of similarities with the M. A and M. Sc programmes already offered by School of Media Studies,” he added.
When contacted, K. Karnamaharajan, Head of CFEMS, denied that there was any problem with recognition of the M. Tech course. “Two batches of students have not received their degrees because they did not apply for convocation. The students presently doing the course need not worry,” he said.
He said that the decision to stop the course was taken by MKU administration to bring uniformity in the courses it offered.
Denying that there was a proposal to ‘rent’ the available infrastructure, he said that it would instead be a ‘collaboration’ with the film industry to provide better exposure to students.
