Self-financed engineering colleges who have been apparently unable to find a way out to improve the pass percentage of the section of students pursuing graduation with government scholarships find themselves in a crisis situation in the wake of the Madras High Court expressing strong reservations over the State Government’s decision to cancel arrears exams citing COVID-19 pandemic.
The instances of students with arrears in 15 and more number of papers forgoing their degrees have become all too common in most self-financed engineering colleges, since they constitute those who had been admitted with dismal scores in Plus Two, according to the faculty.
The situation has come to such a pass since very many colleges that are unable to attract students in required numbers through the TNEA (Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions) counselling sustain themselves financially by enrolling students from rural parts who are entitled to government scholarships either by virtue of being first-generation graduates or belonging to SC/ST communities, through a network of agents.
This explains why recruiters have not been enthusiastic about conducting campus interviews in recent years.
“This year, the situation is close to pathetic. The number of eligible students - those who have cleared all papers till date - is quite low. Recruiters look for an environment where they could screen students in large numbers and arrive at the best ones through a process of elimination,”a faculty member of a college involved in placement activities said.
This time, the recruiters, of course, visited the colleges, albeit in lesser numbers and informed the small number of candidates fulfilling eligibility conditions that the subsequent screenings will be conducted online, another senior faculty member said.
While established companies continue to pay reasonable salary, mid-level companies pay the students not more than ₹ 20,000 per month for technology-based jobs and less than ₹ 15,000 per month for call centre jobs, he said.
There is very less likelihood of the companies visiting the college campuses again during this academic year in the context of the High Court’s position on arrears exams, the faculty observe.
