Engg colleges force faculty members to quit to cut costs

Engg colleges force faculty members to quit to cut costs

Ragu.Raman@timesgroup.com

Chennai:

After getting approval and affiliation for the upcoming academic year, several engineering colleges in the state have started to force their faculty members to quit their jobs to cut costs amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Anna University has received complaints against 10 engineering colleges from faculty members in the past few weeks.

A city college which got its autonomous status recently is forcing 60 senior faculty members to resign. “Our college had near 100% admissions last year. It has got AICTE approval and NIRF ranking showing our qualifications and research work. But after getting the extension of affiliation, the management is forcing senior faculty members out,” an affected faculty member said.

Ten of the 60 have resigned so far. “The college says admissions are poor even before Class XII exam results are out. But they are preparing to recruit freshers,” the faculty member added.

A deemed university in the city is forcing 50 faculty members out without prior notice and has told the faculty about it orally.

“In the middle of the pandemic, the management says we will be sacked. Where will we go?” a faculty member asked.

Private Educational Institutions Employees Association president K M Karthik says there are widespread complaints of terminations throughout the state and that some colleges were terminating satff in small numbers to avoid trouble. Many colleges have not paid salaries since the lockdown began.

“Poor admissions, Covid have put colleges under financial stress. It is to cut cost, there is no word on when colleges will reopen. Colleges think they faculty can be hired any time,” principal of a prominent city college said.

“We have received complaints about a few colleges. We may conduct surprise checks to prevent colleges retrenching faculty after getting affiliation,” said M K Surappa, vice-chancellor of Anna University.