Academics and educationalists have demanded the State government to streamline the admission process in government, aided and private colleges by facilitating students who cleared the Class XII examination to apply for colleges online through their schools.

In Tamil Nadu, there are 1,044 arts and science colleges in eight regions (724 self-financing colleges, 181 government colleges and 139 aided colleges).

The admission guidelines are common to all these colleges, but private and aided colleges tend to provide admissions on the day when board exam results are released. Whereas, this year, government colleges completed the first phase of counselling on June 18th.

The general secretary of the Association of University Teachers (AUT) Tamil Nadu, K. Raja, said the uneven and lopsided admission of students in government, government-aided and self-financing arts and science colleges in Tamil Nadu is concerning, with a whopping 43% vacancy in 181 government arts and science colleges.  

He added that government colleges adopt a schedule of admission processes as per the guidelines, such as the beginning and last date for application and extension, preparation of the rank list, and the commencement of counselling. On the other hand, private and aided colleges begin admissions as soon as results are out, with some colleges admitting students prior to the results, allowing first-year classes to begin by the third week of June. “Why should there be a glaring disparity in the admission of students, when the admission guidelines are common?” Mr. Raja questioned.

Stating that, earlier, S. Parthasarathy, a retired Professor in Bio-Informatics at the Tiruchi Bharathidasan University, sent a proposal to the then Minister of Higher Education, which was included  in the DMK Manifesto, and was promised to be implemented as the ‘Udhayam Higher Education’ Scheme. As per the suggestion, all Class XII students shall register a college/course-wise application online at the school itself on the day of exam results.

When school teachers, particularly in rural areas, help students apply for colleges, the chance of them pursuing higher education is high. Online processing of applications and roster ranking would level the playing field for the students, providing them a chance at the applied college or course within a week. This will streamline the admission, wiping out the menace of excess fee collection, Mr. Raja added.

Educationist K. Pandiyan said, with the advent of self-financing in education since the early 1980s, the admission of students is not complementary among colleges, but has become competitive. The closure of several engineering colleges in the past is the open reality, cautioning the financial sustainability of private colleges. “On the other hand, the government, as per the statistics of the early 1990s, had spent ₹17,000 per student annually by subsidising higher education,” Mr. Pandiyan added.

Mr. Pandiyan also sought for a thorough review of geographical location and accessibility to the existing government colleges. The Chennai, Coimbatore and Tirunelveli regions have a comparatively lesser number of government colleges than the other regions. Vested interests allegedly seemed to have ensured that no government colleges were started in certain strategic areas, he stated.

Wherever admissions dwindle in a period of time, relocation of such colleges to these areas shall also be considered, he said, and urged the TVK-led government to implement professor Parthasarathy’s suggestion to streamline admission processes.