Anna University Chennai is one of the best universities in Engineering Education in India. Most of the years Guindy college of Engineering of Anna University can be found among the top ten Engineering colleges just below the rankings for IITs.
Since the number of Engineering colleges in Tamil nadu crossed more than 400 there was a need to bring the engineering colleges functioning under various universities in to one Technical university. For administrative reasons and for bringing uniform Engineering Education Anna University was split into six universities as Anna University Chennai and with the name Anna University of Technology at different locations Chennai, Tiruchirappalli, Coimbatore, Tirunelveli and and Madurai. The local Government and private engineering colleges were attached with the respective regional Anna Universities.
In 2010 the Tamil nadu Assembly adopted a bill to make Anna University, Chennai, a unitary type university. By this move the Anna university would comprise the College of Engineering besides the Alagappa Chettiar College of Technology and the Madras Institute of Technology, Chromepet.
This decision was made considering that 136 engineering colleges were affiliated to it and teachers of the university were unable to do research work instead they spent most of their time on administrative matters of admissions, examinations etc.
With the growing number of Engineering colleges with varying standards the Anna university had to maintain its own name and quality on par with IITs. Therefore over a period of time the Anna University administrative set up has been evolved to make it the top institution in the field of research too. The Anna University (Chennai) had even outdone the Indian Institutes of Technology and other leading institutions in India in “fastest growth” in the number of science and technology research papers published in journals The university had published 311 S&T research papers during the final study period of 2001-02. which was a jump from just 63 papers a decade ago.
The study showed that institutions like the IIT Delhi, IIT Madras, Punjab University and Banaras Hindu University were on decline in their activity index during that period. The activity index of the Anna University during 2001-02 was 1.84, when compared 0.91 of IIT Madras.
But the recent move of the Government of Tamil nadu to again merge all the regional Anna Universities has sent shock waves among academic circles. The move will interfere midway in the academic activities. Further it is retrograde step affecting the research works in the university.
While discussion with the student community it is found that there is unnecessary comparison between IIT Madras and Anna University. They even conduct opinion polls to see which is the best among the two.Many magazines conduct surveys based on certain scientific parameters. IITs will always better other institutions in terms of funding and facilities. The admission procedures for IITs is different from the procedures for Anna University. While the cream of the talents at national level are selected for IITs the best students in Tamil nadu opt for College of Engineering at Guindy the premiere engineering college of Anna University.
The Dravidar Kazhagam activists speak against the IIT chennai where the forward community people influence and get opportunities in jobs. They are proud that the Anna University giving admission to more number of Backward class people can outdo the IIT Chennai. They now allege that there is a conspiracy against Anna University. They believe that the Chief Minister of Tamil nadu has been ill advised by the promoters of IIT to unify the regional universities into Anna University so that the research activities are crippled to aid IIT Chennai to surpass in Excellence.
It is unfortunate that the newly elected Government blindly wish to do away with all the decisions of the previous Government. Anna University should be left alone to do its research works utilising the full potential of the talent pool it has accumulated. Any move against is a National Loss.
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