Kerala high court raises concern over quality of state's higher education.

KOCHI: The Kerala high court observed on Thursday that in order to stop the erosion of quality in higher education, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) should consider revoking affiliations granted to self-financing engineering colleges in the state that had a pass percentage below 40%.

The division bench comprising Justice CN Ramachandran Nair and Justice CK Abdul Rehim made the observation after reviewing exam results of self-financing engineering colleges in the state for the past three years, and on the basis of an expert committee's report that revealed lack of qualified faculty and infrastructure in an alarmingly large number of colleges.

Managements of various engineering colleges in the state have welcomed the high court's observation. "This is the need of the hour. Several dubious operators have set up engineering colleges in the state which fail to maintain basic standards. There are some engineering colleges that have a pass percentage as low as 5%. More professional colleges are needed in the state but it shouldn't be at the cost of quality", said Punnose George, treasurer, Kerala Self Financing Engineering College Management's Association.

A similar sentiment was echoed by K J Paulose, dean, management studies, School of Communication and Management Studies, Kochi, who conducts a yearly audit on the quality of students in self-financing colleges in the state. "The pass percentage is pathetically low mainly because the quality of teachers and students in these colleges is poor. More than 50% of colleges have lower than 40% pass percentage," he said. However, to what extent AICTE will be able to act on the high court's recommendations remains moot. The AICTE's official mandate is to check infrastructure, faculty and other requirements for running an engineering college. Responsibility for academic performance lies with the institutions.

Many educationists also believed that shutting down colleges with a poor pass percentage would be a simplistic solution. "You can't blame the institution for poor performance when the flaws lie in the primary and higher secondary school system which gives 100% marks to its students. Many students are also victims of parental and peer group pressure which lands them in professional courses," said G P C Nayar, chairman of the SCMS Group and national president of the Federation of Associations of Private Unaided Professional Colleges.

The high court had reviewed the performance of students from self-financing engineering colleges in examinations during 2008-09, 2009-10, and 2010-11. Additionally, the court had considered reports of surprise raids conducted by a seven-member expert committee appointed by the state government based on the court's direction on January 18 last year.

This committee's report was a severe indictment of Kerala's self-financing engineering colleges. The report revealed that many colleges didn't have qualified lecturers and professors, and that they paid their faculty on a contract basis or sometimes on an hourly or daily wage basis. Overall, the report revealed a shortage of staff across all levels - senior, middle and associate levels - in most colleges.

The committee noted various discrepancies - in one college a professor in mechanical engineering was also holding the post of head of the department of computer science; another self-financing engineering college had a principal who didn't even have an engineering degree.

There were colleges with no separate campus, with different departments affiliated to different universities functioning in the same building. Many colleges lacked enough floor space for laboratories and classrooms while a good number of them had obsolete laboratory equipment.