TN Govt. to appoint VCs in State Universities: CM chairs VCs meeting

The Tamil Nadu government has decided to appoint vice-chancellors of state universities on its own as it is a state subject, said the Chief Minister MK Stalin while speaking at the vice-chancellors’ conference held at Anna University campus in Chennai on Tuesday.Kick-starting the conference, Stalin said, “Tamil Nadu has as many as 22 universities and of which, only two – Madras university was established in 1857 and Annamalai university was established in 1929 - were established in the pre-independence era. 

While the government had managed to set up only one university Madurai Kamarajar university – in the period between 1947 and 1967, all the remaining 19 universities were established after 1967 when the Dravidian parties started to rule the state. This shows the amount of importance given to higher education by the government.

”The Madras university has always been a source of inspiration for the other states to establish their own universities, he said and added that several unique courses were being taught in the state universities.
Pointing out that the state government has been allocating about Rs 3,000 crore for the universities, he said that sufficient allocation of fund was one of the reasons for the better performance of these universities and it in turn has made Tamil Nadu one of the best performing states in the country.

“Out of top 100 educational institutions in the country, 18 institutions are in Tamil Nadu. Similarly, the state has 21 out of top 100 universities of the country, 31 out of top 100 colleges of the country, 10 out of top 100 research institutes, 35 out of top 200 engineering colleges of the country, 11 out of top 100 management colleges of the country and eight out of top 100 medical colleges of the country,” he said.

The seeds sown by the Justice Party is the main reason for Tamil Nadu being the better performing state in the country, he said, adding that education has always been the biggest wealth to a person and Dravidian parties have been giving that wealth to the public.He urged the vice-chancellors to turn the DMK period as the golden period of higher education and work towards improving the quality of higher education.

“Creating employment opportunities for the students should not be our aim. Instead, we should work towards improving the quality of education and increasing the number of people opting for higher education. I will not accept the allegation that the quality of education decreases when the students’ strength increases,” he added.

He asked the vice-chancellors to create syllabus with the help of industries and to carry out research of international standard. The state government has allotted Rs 50 crore towards research, he added.
Rooster system has been followed while appointing professors and the state government has also been providing a stipend worth Rs 1000 per month to the government school students pursuing higher education, he said, adding that the government would oppose both the NEET and New Education Policy.
Ministers Ponmudi, MRK Panneerselvam, Regupathy, Ma Subramaniam, Meyyanathan, Thangam Thennarasu and Anitha Radhakrishnan participated in the meeting along with the chief secretary Irai Anbu and VCs of all the state-run universities.