CHENNAI: Anna University is planning to make the affiliation process hassle free and transparent by taking it online from next year. The university gives affiliation to around 620 technical and management institutions in Tamil Nadu every year with the affiliation process usually commencing in March and ending in May. As per the existing procedure, the university is collecting the details from the colleges both as paper documents and their soft copies in CDs. After processing the application, teams inspect the colleges and grant affiliation.
“To reduce the paper work we are planning to go online. We have tested the software this year with more than 20 colleges. They have given their feedback citing some teething issues in the software,” an official from Anna University said. In the new process, the university will seek details like faculty’s qualification, infrastructure and lab facilities in the colleges. “The current software has some entry issues. We can’t upload date beyond 20 GB. We have informed the university about these issues,” an official from a private engineering college said. A private engineering college principal said that it will make the process hassle free and transparent.
“If these details are made available to the public then it will be the big boon for parents and students. It will help them to select a better college with good infrastructure instead of just selecting the colleges based on academic performance of the students,” he said. The online process also will have other positive uses like identifying the fake faculty members shown by the colleges.
“Anna University can assign the unique ID to the faculty based on the information made available to them. It will prevent the colleges from showing fake faculty,” the principal said. He also pointed out that one of the important criteria for sanctioning the intake of students is the number of qualified professors available in the college.
