Less than two days after Anna University suspended two centrally sponsored MTech programmes after the reservation norm followed by the State and central governments differed, the University Grants Commission (UGC) instructed all higher education institutions in the State to strictly follow Centre’s guidelines on reservation.
Chennai:
On Saturday, Anna University suspended MTech (Biotechnology) and MTech (Computational Biology) offered by Alagappa College of Technology following a dispute over reservation policy to be followed. There were 45 seats available in these two courses, for which more than 12,000 students had applied.
The instruction from UGC came after some colleges and higher education institutions in the State were trying to follow State reservation for centrally sponsored programmes and courses. For centrally sponsored courses, the reservation has been capped at 50 per cent while the State government has fixed it at 69 per cent.
According to a senior Higher Education Department official, all centrally funded courses in universities, colleges and institutions are required to strictly comply with the Centre’s order on reservation. But the State universities, its affiliated and constituent colleges, and other institutes within the State should follow the percentage of reservation for SCs, STs and OBC as prescribed by the concerned State government.
In the circular, the UGC also asked universities to update reservation roster at regular intervals and display it on their website as per Department of Personnel and Training’s instruction.
“All institutions were also asked to fill up reserved vacancies in teaching and non-teaching posts,” he said, pointing out that it was mandatory for the universities to furnish report along with statistical information on teaching and non-teaching vacancies, admissions to all courses and hostel accommodation for this year on the University Activity Monitoring Portal (UAMP) of UGC.
A monitoring committee would inspect the implementation of reservation policy in the institutions that receive aid from the public funds, except minority institutions.
“This UGC order is applicable for universities, deemed to be universities, colleges, and other grant-in-aid institutions and centres,” he added.
Court asks AU to explain reasons to drop courses
The Madras High Court has directed Anna University to file its response by Wednesday on a plea challenging Anna University’s decision to scrap M Tech (Biotech) and M Tech (Computational Biology) courses for 2020-21 following a dispute whether to adopt 69 per cent reservation followed by the State or 49.6 per cent reservation as decided by the Centre.
When the plea moved by a candidate came up for hearing on Tuesday, Justice B Pugalenthi observed that he was prima facie satisfied that the students could not be deprived of an opportunity to pursue the two courses. But the court added that it wanted to know if there were any other valid reasons behind scrapping admission before passing any interim order, the court directed Anna University to explain through a counter.
The petitioner, R Chitra, who had scored more than 93 per cent in BTech and high grades in GAT-B examination, submitted that Anna University announced cancellation of admission on January 29.
Appearing for the petitioner, advocate Saravanan Annadurai said that the UGC clarified in a circular dated February 1 that a university has to adhere to the reservation pattern adopted in the particualr State. But instead of resolving the dispute and admitting students in the course, the university resorted to an unjustifiable action.
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