In a bid to enhance the employability of students, Higher Education Minister K Ponmudy on Friday, March 31, announced a slew of measures in the assembly. To make students industry-ready, the centre of excellence for advanced manufacturing will be established in all government engineering colleges in the state and electric vehicles mobility centres will be established at government polytechnic college and government polytechnic college for women in Coimbatore, as stated in a report by The New Indian Express.
This initiative will give a much-needed boost to the booming electric vehicle industry in the state. Further, the minister also announced that from this academic year, MCA courses will be offered in five government arts and science colleges while another five government arts and science colleges will offer MBA courses to students.
What else did the minister say?
K Ponmudy also announced that the department will wind up the courses in government arts and science colleges which have low enrollment and will open new courses in its place. The department will introduce industry-aligned new sandwich diploma programmes in five government polytechnic colleges. The sandwich courses are a mixture of two courses like electronics and communication, weaving technology and so on.
The higher education department will also implement a learning management system integrated with enterprise resource planning software in all higher education institutions at the cost of Rs 150 crore.
Increase in enrollment
The minister also said in the assembly that enrollment in the government arts and science colleges, polytechnic colleges and engineering colleges has increased this academic year. Ponmudy said in arts and science colleges, the enrollment increased from 4.38 lakh last year to 5.33 lakh this year. While admissions in polytechnic institutes have increased to 68,791 this year against last year's 56,801.
Additionally, to promote research work in Tamil Nadu Archives and Historical Research department, the minister announced an amount of Rs 10,000 per month which will be provided to students for two years on a pilot basis as a scholarship for undertaking research in these departments.
Also, the department will install sanitary napkin vending machines in 79 colleges, including 7 women's colleges at a cost of Rs 43 lakh, while incinerators will be installed in 168 colleges at a cost of Rs 1.26 crore. For the modernisation of infrastructure facilities in government colleges, Rs 180 crore has been allocated, added the minister, as stated in a report by The New Indian Express.