Hundreds of faculty members from a number of engineering colleges in the central region find themselves in a predicament of losing their jobs due to the noticeable fall in intake of students through the Tamil Nadu Engineering Admission (TNEA) 2019.
On an average, a faculty member has to scout every year for at least five students entitled to post-matric scholarship of the Central government and get them admitted under the management quota to retain the job.
Scholarship
“It is not possible any more as the Centre has made it clear that payment of scholarship will be confined to those who get admitted through the counselling process,” a teacher on the verge of losing his job in an engineering college in Tiruchi district said.
“The fee claimed against management quota seats, spot admission seat in any institution/ university will not be reimbursed,” the latest guideline states.
A functionary of a management committee of another private college acknowledged that very many engineering colleges could survive so far despite less admissions since they managed to enrol a chunk of SC students under management quota and secured scholarship to run the institutions. The scholarship fund amounted to ₹ 70,000 a student. By managing to admit 100 students across branches every year, there used to be sufficient flow of fund.
With the new guideline taking effect this year, college managements are in a piquant situation.
Delay in reimbursement
In fact, due to the delay in reimbursement of SC scholarship for the last few months, the faculties have been working in colleges without salaries. Identifying SC students with a zeal for academic progression is an ordeal, said another teacher who is reconciled to the eventuality of losing his job.
The Centre sanctions scholarships only to those students whose parents or guardians’ income from all sources does not exceed ₹ 2.5 lakh a year. The components of the scholarship include maintenance allowance, reimbursement of compulsory non-refundable fees, study tour charges, thesis typing, book allowance and book bank facility. But, there is a rider.
The continuity of scholarship is dependent on satisfactory progress and conduct of the scholar.
If the candidate is found guilty of misconduct or if the attendance is irregular, the scholarship will be discontinued.
The Consortium of Self-Financing Professional, Arts and Science Colleges is learnt to have approached the government with a plea for extending the SC scholarship for management quota seats that were already filled during 2019-20 even before the start of TNEA counselling.
The faculty members in the colleges with poor admissions are jittery since the government is yet to respond.
