KU plan to revive vocational courses

By G. Mahadevan

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, AUG. 13. In a bid to revive the UGC-aided vocational degree courses that began in affiliated colleges of the Kerala University five years ago, the university is giving shape to a proposal which will enable colleges to continue these courses without seeking financial aid from either the State Government or the university.

According to the new proposal taking shape in the university, these courses can be run in the same manner in which other courses are being run in the aided colleges in the university. In aided colleges run by minority communities, while 40 per cent of admissions is according to merit, 40 per cent of admissions is from the management quota and the community quota put together. In aided colleges not run by the minority communities, 50 per cent of admission is according to merit, while 40 per cent is from the management and community quota put together. According to the new proposal, the University will conduct entrance examinations for these vocational courses and will publish a ranklist from which the admissions are to be carried out.

Some top officials of the Kerala University have sent feelers to the managements and various teachers' organisations to gauge their mood on this issue. While some private managements are learnt to have expressed no reservations about such a formula, others are reportedly favouring a full self-financing status to these courses. However, teachers' organisations such as the All Kerala Private College Teachers' Association (AKPCTA) are against granting self-financing status to these courses.

The Syndicate of the Kerala University had in May issued a directive, to all 38 colleges (Government and aided) offering these vocational courses, not to conduct fresh admissions. This followed the completion of the five year period during which the conduct of these courses were fully funded by the UGC. The central body had given sanction to these courses on condition that the State Government will assume financial responsibility for these courses after the first five years. It was this stipulation that forced the cash-starved university to ask the colleges to discontinue the courses. While the five year period for some courses is already over, in the case of some other courses there are one or two more years to go.

What has prompted the Kerala University to try and revive these courses is their immense popularity among students and pressure from private managements. These courses - including Optical Instrumentation, Industrial Chemistry, Industrial Microbiology, Clinical Nutrition, Tourism and Travel Management, Tax Procedures and Practice and Communicative English - had become so popular that some colleges were even planning to start post-graduate courses on these subjects. During the course of the past five years, some colleges had also set up excellent laboratories for such courses as Optical Instrumentation and Biotechnology.

Managements of aided colleges are keen to revive these courses partly because these courses - run almost as self-financing courses - ensured higher returns and partly due to demand from the student community. During the past two months, these managements have been constantly pressurising the university to let them continue these vocational courses on a self-financing basis. The Syndicate of the university is divided on the question of allowing vocational courses to be run in a self-financing manner. Members of the Syndicate owing allegiance to the CPI(M) are against the self-financing option and instead prefer Government funding for these courses.

Meanwhile, sources in Government colleges say the State Government is thinking of utilising the infrastructure in the Continuing Education Centres in various Government colleges to continue the vocational courses that were offered in Government Colleges as per the existing fee structure for these courses. These Centres are already offering short-term, vocational courses whose certificates are given by the Directorate of Technical Education.

The proposal in its final form is expected to be placed before the Syndicate shortly.

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Section  : Southern States
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