Sorting out a technical issue

Every district in Tamil Nadu has a technical institute, but enrolment is low. A recent survey, conducted by the AICTE, found pockets of poor enrolment in colleges in the State, and this is worrisome to educators as well as to the government, says R. Sujatha

Tamil Nadu not only has the highest number of engineering colleges but also an equally good number of polytechnic colleges. How and where are these institutions distributed? Do all districts have a sufficient number of colleges and a wide range of programmes? How are they distributed among institutions and districts? What is the enrolment pattern of women versus men? These are some of the questions the answers to which have led to some soul-searching among members of the higher education fraternity in the State. A detailed analysis was recently presented by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).

The AICTE’s survey, of which outcome was shared with Tamil Nadu’s Department of Higher Education, has mapped up to the level of programmes offered at polytechnics and engineering colleges. The survey, which has collated data till 2021, shows that Tamil Nadu has probably hit a plateau with fewer new technical institutions having been opened in the past five years.

There were two growth peaks, indicating the highest growth curve, in 2001 and 2009 for engineering colleges. Polytechnic education hit the peak in 1984 and 1998, and again between 2007 and 2010, when it reached the highest growth curve. AICTE Chairman T.G. Sitharam launched the report at the diamond jubilee celebration of the National Institute of Technical Teachers’ Training and Research (NITTTR), now a deemed university, in December 2024 in Chennai. He suggested then that the NITTTR faculty focus on training teachers at second- and third-rung colleges of which students formed the bulk of human resources.

Disproportionate representation

The distribution of technical institutions in the State is an interesting study in itself. All districts have technical institutions, but the number of institutions is not commensurate with the population of the region. For example, Coimbatore, Madurai and Salem, with a population of 30 lakh-35 lakh, have 130, 38 and 47 institutions respectively, whereas Tiruvallur and Chennai districts, with a population of over 35 lakh, have 59 and 40 institutions respectively.

Districts with a population of less than 10 lakh have disproportionately more institutions. Perambalur, Ariyalur, and Nagapattinam are home to 17, 9, and 13 institutions respectively. While the Nilgiris has the lowest of 3, Mayiladuthurai ranks the second lowest with 5 institutions. Coimbatore has the highest number of institutions, at 130.

The State is home to 947 self-financing institutions of which 109 are in the government sector and 55 are in the aided sector. Coimbatore has the highest number of self-financing institutions, followed by Tiruvallur, Chengalpattu, Kancheepuram, Namakkal, Tiruchi, and Kanniyakumari. In Chennai district, while almost half the institutions are self-financed, there are fewer aided institutions than those run by the government. In 13 districts, there are no aided institutions. The concentration of institutions offering diploma programmes is in the central districts mostly. Coimbatore, with 29 institutions, has the highest, followed by Tiruchi, with 26 institutions. Tiruvallur and Salem, with 23 institutions, and Namakkal, with 22, stand next. Ramanathapuram, with 3, and the Nilgiris, with 2 institutions, rank the lowest.

The overall enrolment in all the programmes — including diploma, undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, MBA, and MCA — is only half the sanctioned intake. Vacancies are high in all programmes, with civil and allied subjects topping the list. Though opportunities have opened for women, fewer women are enrolled at all levels. As in the case of men, fewer women students favour diploma programmes as against undergraduate courses. As against the sanctioned 1,83,478 seats in the engineering courses, only 67,164 candidates are enrolled, and 6,134 of them are women. As many as 1,16,314 seats are vacant. This year’s admission data are no different. The story is the same for polytechnic colleges. In the academic years 2023-24 and 2024-25, only 41% of the seats were filled. If a girl manages to enter college, the possibility of her pursuing higher education is higher, the data show. Women enrolment in the postgraduate programmes, including MBA and MCA, is almost at the same level as men.

The highest enrolment at the diploma level is in Coimbatore, with 12,396 candidates, followed by Salem, with 9,279 candidates, and Tiruchi, where 9,026 students are enrolled. Among the northern districts, Chennai has the lowest enrolment in diploma, with 4,365 candidates. In Tiruvallur, 7,515 candidates have enrolled. Chengalpattu, with 6,880 candidates, and Kancheepuram, with 4,135 candidates, complete the northern region of the State.

It is not only at engineering colleges but also at polytechnic institutions where civil and allied courses find little favour. This is also true of the Coimbatore region, which has a good concentration of small and medium enterprises. The number of vacancies for CSE and allied courses in diploma programmes are lower.

Batting for civil engineering

The principal of a government polytechnic college in the city recounted his struggle to convince his friend’s daughter to give polytechnic education a try. The candidate had scored 270 marks in Class 12 but wanted to study engineering. The principal said the girl told him that she had chosen engineering as her friends had done so. “She had succumbed to peer pressure and wanted to study CSE. I told her that her mark would fetch a seat in a low-rung institution. Instead, she could consider civil engineering in a polytechnic college. Since very few opt for civil engineering, she would easily find a job in a government department. If she wishes to pursue an engineering degree after a diploma, admission to a top-rung college would be easy as there would hardly be any competition,” he said. The girl followed his advice.

M. Arun Kumar, a research scholar in building technology at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, is a civil engineering graduate from an Anna University-affiliated college. The 2007-batch student, with a decade’s experience as a teacher, said he had opted for civil as the demand for information technology fell when he entered college. Similarly, during the COVID-19 pandemic, information technology and software professionals were given the option of working from home, whereas civil engineers had to report to the site. After the pandemic, when companies gave their employees the work-from-home option with a pay cut, the civil engineers continued to work at sites with higher salaries. “It is cyclical. The demand for information technology and software jobs is falling. There is a demand for civil engineering,” he remarked.

When it comes to postgraduate engineering programmes, only two districts — Madurai and Coimbatore — boast aided institutions. Coimbatore, with 62, has the highest number of institutions offering a postgraduate degree in business administration, with the highest intake too. It has the highest enrolment, with 6,081 candidates. All districts, except the Nilgiris and Ariyalur, have either private, aided, or government institutions that offer MBA. In Chennai, the enrolment stands at 904 candidates. Chengalpattu, Tiruvallur, and Kancheepuram post better enrolment rates, with each enrolling around 1,300 candidates.

When it comes to MCA, Coimbatore has 25 institutions with an enrolment of 1,472 candidates. Chennai, with 10 institutions, has an enrolment of 478 candidates. Namakkal, with 16 institutions, has enrolled 975 candidates.

NITTTR director Usha Natesan said the AICTE’s report would aid the State government in decisions including the one on introducing a branch of study. “Parents feel a polytechnic is inferior, though they offer better employment opportunities. We need to have courses in the emerging trend sectors to improve admission,” she said.

The deemed university has planned to develop 25 Massive Open Online Courses from the January 2025 semester for polytechnic students on the Swayam platform. NITTTR has planned to introduce 200 courses in emerging technologies in four years to address the needs of polytechnic students. “The National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL) courses are directed at the BE curriculum, which could be difficult for polytechnic students. If there is a shortage of teachers, the students can refer to our courses,” Ms. Usha said. Polytechnic teachers are mostly BE graduates with little opportunity to do a postgraduate degree, she pointed out.

The deemed university has introduced a flexi-mode postgraduate programme, wherein candidates can take two or three courses during vacation and complete the degree in two-and-a-half years to three years. It launched five courses this year: civil-infrastructure and management; mechanical-mechatronics; electrical-power electronics; and electronics-VLSI and AI and ML.

Learning from mistakes

Ms. Usha recalled that the institution launched courses in AR and VR aimed at polytechnic teachers, but the response was poor. “We did not realise that AR and VR were not offered at the diploma level,” she said. In 2024, the Directorate of Technical Education planned to establish AR and VR facilities at 35 polytechnic colleges. NITTTR has asked the Directorate to share the details “so that we can train those teachers in advance. When the facilities are established, the teachers will be able to use them,” Ms. Usha said.

The institution has requested the AICTE to reconsider its restriction that working professionals must be within 75 km of the college campus. “We have asked Dr. Sitharam to relax the norm so that people from other parts of the State can attend our courses. There is much interest in these courses in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh,” she added. NITTTR has received approval to admit 30 regular and as many working professionals. The regular candidates can be accommodated during vacations, but the restriction on distance for working professionals has resulted in vacancies. Ever since the institution was delinked from Anna University, the response to its postgraduate degrees has improved, she pointed out. As many as 170 teachers have applied for postgraduate degrees. When the same courses were offered while it was affiliated to Anna University, fewer than 10 persons applied, she said.

Published - January 12, 2025 12:36 am IST