 FUTURE SET UP OF THE COLLEGES

A. Academic set up

3.001. The primary objective in the establishing of the Central Engineering Colleges is to provide high-grade training facilities for the first degree courses in engineering and technology. The colleges are to function as all-India institutions and as pace setters for the training of standards in the Engineering Colleges of the region. There is at present a widely held view that the Central Government, having invested large sums of money in these colleges and the Institutes of Technology, should ensure that these two categories of institutions complement each other so that the inputs may yield best results.

3.002. Accordingly, the Institutes of Technology may, if necessary, adjust their work for undergraduate courses and concentrate on postgraduate courses and research work. The Central Engineering Colleges should, in consequence, concentrate on first-degree training and provide feeder material of the right type to the post-graduate work for which the Institutes of Technology are equipped.

3.003. This does not mean that the Central Engineering Colleges would only be doing the first degree courses. Some of these colleges have been deliberately located in centres of industrial concentration to derive the benefit of close links between industry and the institutions. Some of these colleges have also built close links with industry and with substantial assistance from UNDP/UNESCO have started postgraduate courses in specialisations oriented to the requirements of industries with which they are in collaboration. This collaboration has produced good standard post-graduate work.

3.004. If close links are established between the colleges and the Institutes of Technology, it should be possible for the post- graduate courses and research programmes emerging out of areas of excellence in the Central Engineering Colleges to draw on the highly sophisticated equipment available at the Institutes of Technology, in addition to inter-action with

the staff at these institutions, for mutual benefit.

3.005. The objectives mentioned in the foregoing paragraphs can be achieved only by establishing appropriate linkages between the Institutes of Technology and the Central Engineering Colleges on the one hand and the Central Engineerring Colleges and other engineering degree institutions on the other.

3.006. We have already observed that the Central Engineering Colleges in general are functiong satisfactorily as first-degree institutions and in some cases have also established themselves as the leading firstdegree institutions in their own states. However, the objective of the Central Engineering Colleges functioning as pace- setters in the regions has yet to be achieved.

3.007. We would like to make it very clear, in this context, that this objective is not to be achieved by any attempt on the part of the Government or a demand from the Central Engineering Colleges themselves that an artificially high status should be attached to them. The same criteria should apply to the Institutes of Technology as well. We need not stress the fact that reputation or excellence should be earned and not affixed by classifying the institutions.

3.008. We are constrained to make these observations because at present there seems to be a feeling that the Central Engineering Colleges are not quite of the same level as the Institutes of Technology but superior to the state colleges. We have an impression that this feeling in the Institutions, as well as in the general public, has set in, on the status that appears to have been attached by the Government themselves to the respective institutions. This outlook needs a change.

3.009. There is a need for a link up of the Central Engineering Colleges with other colleges in the State both in organisation and in programmes to realise the pace-setting objective. This objective not being achieved so far, may be partly due to the fact that the faculty members were busy-engaged in the establishment and consolidation of their own courses and programmes and partly due to rigid service rules which do not permit faculty exchange.

3.010. All the colleges have, however, not progressed in a like manner. There are quantitative and qualitative differences in their progress. The quantitative differences are in the prescribed courses of study. the extent of industry orientation in courses, and the extent of science base in the courses. There are differences in examination systems and also in the schemes of examinations. These factors will have to be kept in view while deciding the future set up of the colleges.

3.011. The existing stucture-academic as well as administrative -was reasonably satisfactory in the initial stages of development of the institutions. With the launching of research activities and intensive and extensive industrial collaboration at both under-graduate and post-graduate levels, this structure with bottlenecks at various stages needs modification. We discuss their requirements in the following paragraphs.

3.012. The colleges are at present affiliated to the universities in their respective areas. Many of these universities have other engineering colleges supported by state governments or private organisations, also affiliated to them. In Annexure V may be seen the university to which each college is affiliated and government and non-government engineering colleges also affiliated to the same university.

3.013. The affiliated status of the colleges has presented many problems. Where the Central Engineering College is the only engineering college affiliated to a university, the difficulties experienced in academic matters by the institution have not been so pronounced as in the case of colleges which are affiliated to universities along with other institutions or the universities also having engineering colleges of their own, as department or constituent colleges.

3.014. The Central Engineering Colleges have been able to attract good quality staff on account of better salary scales and amenities. They have also very good instructional, laboratory and other facilities as compared to other engineering colleges affiliated to the same university. In spite of this, the colleges do not appear to have made the progress in academic matters as they could have been expected to do. This may largely be attributed to the fact that the academic bodies of the universities which have several engineering colleges affiliated to them have larger membership from the staff of the university engineering colleges and older institutions with the universities. On account of the poor facilities in other engineering institutions, the academic standards that have been set by these bodies had always in view the capabilities of the poorest of the institutions affiliated to the universities.

3.015. Academic proposals in subjects like Applied Mathematics, Applied Sciences and Humanities are sometimes referred to as faculties of Science, Arts and Commerce. These faculties do not have a correct appreciation of their relevance and importance to Engineering Education and the proposals often get dropped.

3.016. There is also the traditional outlook of Same universities not to agree to changes and deviations from the conventional practice, even if they are important for progress in technical studies. As an illustration,

we may mention the great difficulty that had to be faced by the Central Engineering Colleges to introduce the M. Tech. industrially- oriented courses, in collaboration with industry. These courses, aimed at dealing with real problems in industry, had to depart from the conventional and entirely theoretical M. Sc. courses. Sometimes these new courses were opposed by the academic authorities of the universities, simply because corresponding facilities could not be created in their own institutions. It would, however, be interesting to observe that the courses have now well set and established their utility with the result that many other institutions are also organising courses on this pattern.

3.017. There is always a delay in the universities declaring the results of engineering examinations, since the candidates involved are very few as compared to the huge numbers in Arts, Science and Commerce subjects. This upsets the teaching schedule and training programmes in industry, for (engineering students. Semester system and industry-oriented courses which are highly progressive innovations in engineering education, consistently suffer on account of late declaration of results. In fact, one of the colleges is seriously considering giving LIP the semester system owing to this difficulty.

3.018. In consideration of these facts, it is very clear to us that if we have to get the best results out of the investments made in the Centarl Engineering Colleges, it is very necessary that they should be fully autonomous in academic matters.

3.019. The burden of the song in the discussions between teaching staff of various colleges and us on academic matters is this academic autonomy to the colleges, for progress. The Boards of Governors with whom we had discussions also expressed the same view. In particular, we may mention that the Chairman of the Board of Governors of one of the Central Engineering Colleges who is also the Vice-Chancellor of the University to which the college is affiliated, has categorically stated that the colleges should be granted completely autonomous status.

3.020. Another Vice-Chancellor who is the Chairman of another Central Engineering College, stated that there is a big gap in the standards between the Central Engineering College and other colleges affiliated to the university, mainly because of the financial position of the other institutions. While he is -fully convinced that the Central Engineering College should be granted an autonomous status, he apprehended some difficulties. We infer from this that if we leave the question of much needed autonomy of the colleges to the respective universities, we will not be able to achieve the results expected out of it.

3.21. We also record here some of the points raised in our discussions with the teaching staff associations of the colleges on the subject of academic autonomy to the college :

a. The staff of one of the colleges complained that their college has not been able to make the best use of all the facilities it had, due to its linking up with the university which took years for giving approval to starting new courses, changes, in syllabi, recognition of laboratories for research purposes, etc. The college has to be given academic autonomy to frame its own courses, syllabus, conduct examinations and declare results with some sort of built-in checks and supervision.

b. The staff of the Central Engineering College at Surathkal emphasised the need for the colleges to have academic autonomy as in the case of the Institutes of Technology to frame syllabi, curricula and conduct examinations independently and declare results. Consistent with the grant of academic autonomy, they have also suggested the following arrangements for the award of priority :-

(i) The Central Engineering Colleges may be made degree awarding institutions.

(ii) A Central Affiliating body be constituted to award degrees to all Central Engineering Colleges with full academic autonomy for the colleges.

(iii) Affiliation to an [IT with full academic autonomy for the colleges and powers to admit students.

(iv) Autonomy within the university to which the Central Engineering College is affiliated.

c. The staff associations of the Maulana Azad College of Technology, Bhopal,suggested the following two alternatives for academic autonomy of the institutions :-

(i) Grant of academic autonomy to the college within the framework of the university to frame syllabi for various courses and to conduct its own examination.

(ii) Creation of a Regional Technical University which may affiliate three or four Central Engineering Colleges located in that region.

3.022. The Central Engineering Colleges are in different stages of development and, accordingly the progress made by them has also con-

siderable variations. Nevertheless, it may be said that as a class they have made satisfactory progress.

We are fully convinced that for getting best results of the investments made and for continued development and progress of these institutions, they must have complete academic autonomy, but a system of checks and balances should be devised to make sure that academic standards are in no case allowed to be lowered. Moreover, we cannot, a+ this stage, recommend that each college should be converted into a degree awarding institution because it is only a few years back that they were set up and they have yet to formally establish their stability and consistent performance over a reasonable period of time. Therefore, we rule out the idea that each institution should be a degree granting institution by itself. The possibility of this status to selected institutions after sometime may however, be kept open.

3.023. We had also discussion with one of the Directors of the Institutes of Technology, on the feasibility of the Central Engineering Colleges being directly affiliated to an Institute of Technology in their region. While he welcomed the idea of strong academic links between the two types of institutions, he expressed the view that such an arrangement-affiliation to an IIT-would have some inherent difficulties and may not be feasible. At the same time from the governing bodies and teaching staff associations of the Central Engineering Colleges, we had the same sort of reaction to the question of their affiliation to an Institute of Technology.

3.024. It appears to us that a number of real and psychological problems are involved in this. The Institutes of Technology have set and established their own patterns. The Central Engineering Colleges have their patterns. Affiliation to an Institute of Technology may not make it possible. for the Central Colleges to pursue their development in industry-oriented courses. They may lose their capacity for bold and imaginative schemes and end up as imitative institutions or mere appendages to the Institutes of Technology. It was also pointed out to us that the staff of the Cen- tral Engineering Colleges while they welcome establishment of academic linkages and relationships with the Institutes of Technology, they would not appreciate the status of these colleges to be that of junior partners with the Institutes of Technology.

3.025. In view of the above, we do not recommend the affiliation of the Central Engineering Colleges to the Institutes of Technology.

3.026. In the circumstances explained above, the arrangement that appeals best to us is that there should be a Council of the Central Engi-

neering Colleges, with overall powers for both academic and administrative purposes. The colleges may be autonomous in so far as courses, syllabi and examinations are concerned. The academic awards should, however, be made under a common seal of the Council. The Council should be established by an Act of the Parliament to give it the necessary powers. We have suggested the composition of the Council under Administrative set up.

3.027. The Organisation for checks and balances necessary in the academic performance of the individual institutions should be a part of this Council. The Council should periodically review the academic performance of the individual institutions. Such a review once in five years by a body set up by the Council of the Central Engineering Colleges consisting of representatives from the Council of Institutes of Technology, universities having departments of engineering, professional bodies, industry and representatives of the All India Council for Technical Education, will, in our view, be an effective arrangement for maintaining standards.

3.028. Each college should have its academic set up similar to a university. It should have a College Academic Committee and Depart- mental Boards of Studies. The Academic Committee may have the follow- ing composition :-

1. Principal-ex-officio Chairman

2. All Heads of Departments

3. 20% of departmental faculty with the provision that at least 1 professor, 1 Assistant Professor and 1 Lecturer is taken from each department.

4. 3 outside experts from industry/teaching/ research nominated by the Board.

5. Student Representatives (three) nominated from final year class seniors. They are to be invited when academic matters of general interest are discussed.

The Departmental Boards of Studies may have the following com- position

1 . Head of the Department-ex-officio Chairman

2. All members of the Departmental Faculty

3. Class senior (student representative).

4. One to three experts from outside.

5. Two faculty members from other departments of the College.

For healthy academic and administrative functioning of the department, the Departmental Boards of Studies should constitute broad-based committees for discharging various functions, such as making time-tables, faculty development, Research, etc.

3.029. An alternative to this arrangement could be that each college will function as a completely autonomous body within the framework of the university to which it is at present affiliated. The colleges should be empowered to formulate their own courses, frame their own syllabi and conduct examinations. The awards will, however, be given under the seal of the university to which the college is affiliated. The university periodically will exercise a check on the academic performance of the institution and its fitness to continue as an autonomous institution.