Faculty unhappy over renaming Anna Univ post bifurcation

Faculty unhappy over renaming Anna Univ post bifurcation

Ragu.Raman@timesgroup.com

Chennai:18.09.2020

The state government’s decision to bifurcate Anna University and change its name to Anna Technological and Research University (ARTU) has not gone down well with sections of the faculty.

As per the bill passed in the assembly on Thursday, College of Engineering, Guindy, Madras Institute of Technology, Chromepet, Alagappa College of Technology, Guindy, and School of Architecture and Planning will be part of ARTU, while the new university that will affiliate all engineering colleges in the state will be known as Anna University.

Sources in the university, whose annual budget is about ₹235 crore, said it would lose annually around ₹100 crore revenue from affiliation, conducting exams and other activities.

The faculty members also fear changing the name would affect the university’s standing in the academic world.

“Anna University’s degrees are recognised the world over. It is the hard work and years of toil of many faculty members and eminent vice-chancellors who guided the university to its present glory. By, this one stroke, the state government robbing the university funding and name. It will take a long time create such a brand name,” a senior professor from the university told TOI.

With Institute of Eminence status being denied to the university, it is not clear how the state government will fund the university. “If the university needs to excel in research, it needs huge funding. The state government has not announced any financial grant for the university to improve its research,” another professor said.

Anna University’s former vice-chancellor E Balagurusamy said the new affiliating university should have been given a new name.

“The original Anna University consists of only the four campuses CEG, MIT, AC Tech and School of Architecture and Planning. The affiliated colleges joined the university only in 2002 when the university was originally established in 1978,” he said.

They can even rename the new university Dr Jayalalithaa University of Technology, he suggested.

“We are not against bifurcation but the name matters,” a faculty member said on condition of anonymity.