Tamil Nadu: Unsupervised exams lead to rise in engineering graduates

CHENNAI: The number of engineering graduates went up four times over the previous year because the Tamil Nadu government ordered unsupervised exams in 2021. As a result, 3,34,435 students who wrote in 2021 got BE or BTech degrees against 85,247 students who wrote in 2020.
They were awarded degrees during the 42nd convocation of Anna University on Friday.
Of 3.34 lakh graduates, around two lakh were old students, many of whom cleared a lot of arrears at one go, sources in the university said.
Academics said this will have long term impact as many unqualified engineers can compete for jobs in the public works department, Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation Limited (TANGEDCO) and lecturer posts in polytechnics and engineering colleges.
Following complaints of more failures in the proctored online test conducted in February 2021, the higher education department directed Anna University to conduct unsupervised re-exam for three hours as in other universities. Students who got pass marks in the previous exam also appeared for re-exam in June and July 2021.
The university was also asked to give a special window to enable old students to apply for unsupervised exams. "Usually, the final semester pass percentage would be around 70%. Due to the unsupervised exams, the pass percentage soared above 90% and old students also cleared their pending arrears using the opportunity," said a professor from the university.
"A question mark remains over the capability of students who graduated in this process," said another senior professor. "Unqualified students entering the market as engineers will impact the reputation of Anna University," said its former vice-chancellor E Balagurusamy.
"Companies will not find them suitable and it will create a bad image for the university and state. Students will suffer in future as they may not get jobs anywhere," he said.
Meanwhile, industry experts said it will not have a big impact as recruiters have their own screening process. "Big companies prefer students of current batches and have their own screening process. Getting a degree may not improve old students' chances of employment," said Sriram Rajagopal, founder and director of Diamnodpick, a talent solutions firm.