18 Tamil Nadu engineering colleges to lose Anna University affiliation

CHENNAI: As many as 18 engineering colleges in the state may lose their affiliation with Anna University for 2022-23 as they have been found lacking in infrastructure such as labs, classrooms and faculty members despite being notified of these shortcomings a month ago.
The university has decided to grant affiliation to 207 engineering colleges based on the compliance reports submitted by them after they were issued notices for the gaps in infrastructure.

After a gap of two years, the university in May and June this year conducted physical inspection of 476 engineering colleges, standalone architecture colleges and those offering MBA and MCA programmes. Following the inspection, the university issued notices to 225 engineering and standalone colleges that were found to have more than 50% deficiency in infrastructure and faculty members.
The colleges were given four weeks to appoint new faculty members and improve the labs, classrooms and submit the compliance report. "The reports filed by 18 engineering colleges were not satisfactory and they have been issued fresh showcause notices," said vice-chancellor R Velraj.
These colleges will have ten more days to update their infrastructure. "The experts decided to give extension of approval to the rest of colleges based on their compliance reports," he added.
Some professors said these 18 colleges are unlikely to get affiliation as they did not show any improvement in the four weeks time given to them. "Three colleges which did not enrol any student in the past three years were asking for extension of approval. Such colleges will find it tough to improve their infrastructure in a short time," a professor from the university said.
The university has the power to de-affiliate a course or a college or reduce the seats if the said institution does not file the compliance report on time.
During its inspection, the university found 62 colleges had dearth in infrastructure from 25% to 50% and 23 college principals were not eligible as per the norms.
A total of 166 colleges that were found to have less than 25% gap in infrastructure and staff will get extension of affiliation.
Due to better campus placements in the past two years and the craze for computer related courses, the number of online applications for Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions (TNEA) counselling has increased to 2.11 lakh in 2022 from 1.74 lakh applications in the previous year, said officials.