Kerala protests as Centre eyes varsity

The Centre had originally mooted the idea to ‘upgrade’ five institutions in as many states to IIESTs. IIESTs are to offer five-year integrated dual degree B Tech and MTech courses, two-year M Arch, five-year integrated MSc, two-year master’s programmes in arts, science, architecture and management besides PhD programmes.

The deal involved the states handing over these institutions to the Centre and all admissions to be made at the national level, through the All India Engineering Entrance Examination or the All India Joint Entrance Examination. The announcement had both the Left states—Bengal and Kerala—raising apprehensions about dilution of opportunities for local students. Bengal initially demanded a 70 per cent local admission quota that was later toned down to 50, which, Government sources here say, has been granted. Education Minister M A Baby called on Union HRD Minister Arjun Singh who had reportedly agreed to look at a similar quota for Kerala. Baby gave an “in principle” nod to the Central proposal, but with the rider that a final decision would be made after the LDF and the Government weighed everything. That has not happened yet, while marches, meetings, signature campaigns and conventions are on for and against the move.

The opponents of the move, who include some of the state’s top academics, writers and public fugures, say it would be a plain sellout. The Centre has made a budgetary recommendation of only Rs 2,407.86 crore for all the five proposed IIESTs during the 2007-2012 plan period, and CUSAT stands to get only Rs 518 crore, of which it has already got Rs 15 crore. They argue that the state has already spent about Rs 3,000 crore for developing CUSAT and there’s no point in forsaking that investment for a measly Rs 518-crore package. Other arguments include that a full fledged university should not be allowed to be converted into an institute and its supposed role in higher education should not be reduced to focusing only engineering.

The Kerala State Higher Education Council has demanded that the Government should take no decision without consulting it, while on another plane, CUSAT teachers and employees are also taking out marches opposing the move on the ground that it would do them no good in terms of remuneration and career prospects. As things stand, no one wants to bet on Kerala getting its IIEST.