Close down Engineering colleges that fare badly: HC

Expressing concern over the quality of  higher education in the state, the Kerala High Court on Thursday directed the state government to take steps to close down self-financing engineering colleges which have failed to perform well for the last three years.


A Division Bench comprising Justice C N Ramachandran Nair and Justice Babu Mathew P Joseph passed the order while considering a report on the pass percentage of various self- financing colleges. The court also ordered that steps be taken in this regard within a month and observed that students studying in such colleges could be accommodated in nearby engineering colleges.


The court also directed the state government not to grant NOCs for starting new self-financing engineering colleges in the state.  “All universities in the state have to post the results of engineering examinations of the self-financing colleges affiliated to them on the websites. If the results are posted on the website of the universities, students seeking admission to engineering courses can evaluate the performance of the colleges of their choice,” the court said.  The court ordered the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) to take steps to replace the poor-performing faculty in these colleges and to raise the cut-off marks of qualifying marks for admission to engineering courses. The government has been directed to formulate an action plan to improve the standard of education in engineering colleges.



The court issued the directives after considering the report of an eight-member expert committee appointed by the High Court and the results of the engineering examination conducted by all universities in the state during the last three years. In its report, the committee headed by N Vijayakumar, assistant professor, Department of Electronics and Communication, College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram, said that only five colleges have qualified faculty. Though there were a few senior teachers in these colleges, majority of teachers had only two to three years of experience. The committee said that some colleges were sharing the faculty members among themselves.


“The faculty members who possessed basic science degrees were teaching engineering subjects in some colleges. It was also found that professors of the government-aided colleges also taught in self-financing colleges without getting consent from the government or being deputed by the aided colleges. Besides, the colleges had failed to post details about their institutions in the performa prescribed by the AICTE in their website,” the report pointed out.