Southern States - Tamil Nadu   

Funding likely for revival of varsity centres of excellence

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI May 28. The Government is likely to provide `seed money' for reviving activities of the `centres of excellence' in affiliating universities in the State.

A meeting of the advisory panel of Vice-Chancellors, under the Tamil Nadu State Council for Higher Education (TANSCHE), held on Wednesday, discussed a set of issues, which the Chancellor-Governor proposed a few weeks ago when he met all VCs. The Governor had then wanted the universities to avoid duplicity in academic work including research activities and even suggested that each university take up one or two areas of specialised activity.

Today's meeting noted that already some centres in every university had been designated as `centres of excellence' but were not able to take up major activities for lack of funds. A senior official of the Finance Department, who was an ``invitee'' in the meet, said the Government would consider providing some `seed money' for reviving the activities of these centres, according to official sources here.

Another aspect that was discussed was the issue of examination reforms, mainly through strengthening the system of preparing question papers and the scheme for evaluation of the papers.

Last year, the TANSCHE conducted a series of workshops on question paper improvement for different subjects. Today's meeting decided that the Council would conduct similar workshops in all university areas. The Vice-Chancellors were asked to provide full cooperation to the Council by providing delegates and involving their Controllers of Examinations for the workshops.

The main idea behind the process was to make the question papers and the scheme of evaluation reflect truly the "ability and the knowledge" of the students.

A consensus eluded the participants on issues such as removing the system of providing extra remuneration to teachers for examination answer-paper valuation and strengthening the guidelines to ensure that the individual colleges did not enter into any MoUs with any other university/universities without prior clearance of the affiliating university. The VCs, however, agreed that they would go back to their individual bodies and discuss the matter in detail.

The Education Minister, S. Semmalai, chaired the meeting and the participants included the TANSCHE member secretary, S. Muthukumaran, and some special invitees from the Higher Education and Finance departments.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Southern States

News: Front Page | National | Southern States | Other States | International | Opinion | Business | Sport | Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary |

Stories in this Section

• Campaign against Elangovan resumes
• 'Kathri' comes to an end, but dog days continue
• `Make B.Sc curriculum interesting to attract talent'
• Azhagiri bail plea dismissed
• Giant wheel tragedy: Irregularities come to light
• SSLC, OSLC results tomorrow
• One-time gesture for students of unapproved schools
• Held for dowry harassment
• AIADMK MLA's house attacked, 10 Dalit activists held
• 4 TNLA activists get conditional bail
• UNI regional manager dead
• Funding likely for revival of varsity centres of excellence
• Govt. sanctions Rs. 324.32-cr. drought relief

Copyright © 2003, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu