Fund the Student Not The Colleges: Biju Vithayathil, Amity University

The sysem of government funding and assistance for engineering and management colleges should end and it should be replaced with the funding of the meritorious students, according to Mr Biju Vithayathil, Director of Amity University. A panelist in the 48th Rajagiri Roundtable, 'The Changing Needs of Education' held at Rajagiri School of Engineering and Technology (RSET), Mr Biju Vithayathil said that there was no justification of keeping government college fees low through subsidisation. In its place, the meritorius students should be allowed to pursue a course in a college of his or her choice and the tuition expenses should be borne by the government.

This system will have the advantage of making colleges more accountable, teachers becoming more productive and result-oriented to compete with other institutions. Biju Vithayathil recalled that the faculty of  College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram had resisted all attempts to bring autonomy to the college. It is a high ranking institution because students in merit list prefer to join the college because of the lower fee structure compared to self-financing colleges. He said that open course ware could prove a threat to many top institutions in India as it is now possible to obtain certification and degrees through e-learning from even MIT.

Philip Daniel, Managing Director of Best Talents Consultants was of the view that teaching quality was average in most Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) and the several layers of filtration process through joint entrance examinations helped in attracting the best talent to these institutions.

"Changing over to student-funding system will bring a level playing field for all colleges," said Dr K Paulose Jacob, former Vice Chancellor of CUSAT, also a panelist on the Rajagiri Roundtable.

(The Rajagiri Roundtable is held on second Wednesday of every month either in Rajagiri Engineering College or in select campuses in Ernakulam district. The full report of the 48th Roundatable with photos will be published in Pallikkutam Magazine, June 2019 issue)