Varsity not to terminate faculty with interdisciplinary degree

Asks colleges to let them work in any of the relevant department

CHENNAI, 18/03/2013: For City: A view of the building of College of Engineering Guindy at Anna University campus in Chennai. Photo:B_Jothi Ramalingam.

Anna University has advised affiliated college managements to not terminate faculty members who hold interdisciplinary degrees, but to allow them to work in any one of the “relevant departments”.

The decision was taken following representations from a few teachers, who were told that they did not fulfil the All-India Council for Technical Education norms.

“We received calls from a few college managements asking if they should let go of such faculty,” said M. Madhusoothanan, Affiliations Director at the university.

According to the AICTE norms, a faculty member should have a bachelor’s and master’s degree in the same subject.

But a candidate may have a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and master’s degree in Production Engineering.

Or it may be a bachelor’s degree in ECE and a master’s degree in CSE.

Inspection team

The official said that the inspection team to colleges had followed the AICTE rule book and instructed colleges to comply with it.

“We have told the college managements that the university had taken a policy decision that interdisciplinary degrees would be permitted and that they can work in a relevant department,” he said.

This year, around 15 engineering colleges, including around five institutions from Chennai region, have applied for closure. Some of them sought partial closure while others opted to transfer their students to other colleges.

The affiliations wing has sent its team to inspect three new institutions. These include two colleges for architecture and one stand-alone MBA college.

The institutions have been inspected but their launch will depend on the approval of the AICTE and the Council of Architecture, Mr. Madhusoothanan said.