Vacant seats force engineering colleges to downsize, cut costs

COIMBATORE: The sharp increase in the number of engineering seats lying vacant among engineering colleges under Anna University has forced colleges in the Kongu belt to adopting cost cutting methods such as attrition and reducing salaries.
In some institutions, qualified faculty members are replaced with less qualified people, to cut expenses.
According to an assistant professor of an engineering college in Namakkal established in 2001, the college is not paying the salary as mentioned on paper.“Colleges are supposed to pay as per UGC norms, but most colleges do not do so. When I joined the institute, I was promised a take-home salary of 30,000, but I’m getting only 20,000 per month,” he said. When he spoke to the college management, they told him it was not possible to pay him the promised salary and he was free to leave the job.
According to educational consultant Murthy Selvakumaran, “The reduction in admissions in Tier 2 and 3 colleges has affected most engineering institutions. A major source of funds for any private institution is student fees, with which they provide infrastructure and pay salaries.”, thus, when admissions drop, colleges are forced to cut costs.
In another institution in Erode district, qualified professors are being forced to quit or go on vacation for two-three months. A faculty of the institution requesting anonymity said that every year, final year students are busy with projects and have only two subjects, requiring fewer teachers. “To save money, managements ask us to go on leave so they won’t have to pay our salaries,” he said.
One faculty member said that very often, senior teaching staff are asked to quit and are replaced with less qualified people who don’t have post-graduate degrees. “This is against the University Grants Commission norms, where an assistant professor should have at least completed postgraduate study to join an engineering institution.
According to the All India Council for Technical Education, every engineering institution is supposed to have faculty based on seats allocated to the college. For example, if a college has 300 seats allocated for admission every year, it should have 20 faculty members for 300 students, and taking four years into account, there should be a total of 80 faculty members.
J P Gandhi, educational consultant from Salem said, Tier 3 colleges are unable to fill more than 60% seats and many of them end up filling less than 50%.“Even though seats are not filled, the faculty requirement has to be met. And, when there are not enough students, the management has to spend for additional faculty.” Gandhi said.