Colleges must refund fees, issue TC to students moving to other institutions: Ponmudy

Higher Education Minister holds review meeting with Vice-Chancellors of State varsities

Minister for Higher Education K. Ponmudy addressing the media in Chennai on Wednesday. He is flanked by D. Karthikeyan, Principal Secretary, Higher Education and T.G. Vinay, Director, Directorate of Technical Education. | Photo Credit: S.R. RAGHUNATHAN

Colleges must refund the tuition fee and issue the transfer certificates to candidates who wish to move to another institution, Higher Education Minister K. Ponmudy has said.

“This is admission season. Many students complain that they are unable to move to a college of their choice as the colleges refuse to issue TC. This is especially so for candidates moving from engineering to medical colleges. We have instructed the Vice-Chancellors, and we believe that this would help the poor students in particular,” the Minister said on the sidelines of a meeting with Vice-Chancellors of the various universities in Chennai on Wednesday.

From the next academic year, all universities would release results of the final semester on the same day. The education department would issue the application forms for all PG courses available in the various State universities, he announced.

The changes would ease the process of applying for higher degree programmes across universities, he said.

From the current academic year, students would learn language courses for four semesters. “Candidates who take Tamil will learn in the first two semesters about the pre- and post-colonial history of Tamil literature. Students will learn Tamil history and culture and growth of Tamil and science, in the 3^rd and 4^th semesters respectively,” the Minister said.

A committee comprising four experts had put together the course content. A similar exercise would be taken up for English as well.

Uniform syllabi

Further, universities had been instructed to follow uniform syllabus. They might modify 25% of the coursework, if need be, to suit their region, Mr. Ponmudy said.

According to him the Naan Mudhalvan scheme would be expanded in the current academic year. In engineering colleges, so far 6,986 faculty had been trained and they, in turn, trained over 3.05 lakh students.

Similarly, in arts and science programmes, as many as 7,835 faculty had been trained in 22 courses. They trained over 8.55 lakh students, he added.