more-in With the Tamil Nadu government deciding to convert all the constituent colleges of universities into government colleges, a section of academicians have demanded that the Madurai Kamaraj University College, which is being operated in self-financing mode, is also converted in the larger interest of students. Madurai Kamaraj University has six constituent colleges in Aruppukkottai, Vedasandur, Andipatti, Tirumangalam, Sattur, and Kottur. The salaries of the staff members in these colleges is taken care by the MKU and the students are asked to pay only the fees applicable to government colleges. Academicians point out that the MKU College formed in 1994, on the contrary, is in a ‘twilight zone’ as it is neither considered a constituent college nor a government-aided / government college. “Though MKU controls the administration, expenses of the college is met mainly with the fees collected from students,” a senior faculty member said. P. Murugesan, Associate Professor, Department of Business Administration, said the fee collected is almost equivalent to that of many self-financing college. “For instance, with the revised fee structure this year, a student joining Bachelors of Business Administration (BBA) has to pay ? 18,500 a year. Since a majority of our students come from socio-economically backward families, it is difficult for them to pay this huge sum,” he said. The only consolation was the students were eligible for government scholarships unlike those from other self-financing colleges. According to the faculty members, the unique status of the college has hindered the development of infrastructure and appointment of regular staff. Sources at the college said that while there were about 30 regular staff, drawing salary on a par with those in government or government-aided colleges, there were about 50 teaching assistants and 50 guest lecturers engaged on a temporary basis. The senior faculty member said that a number of regular staff migrated to other government or government-aided colleges since they had apprehensions about job security. A third-year Commerce student said the college lacked basic amenities such as toilets and drinking water. “When we raise the issue with the administration, they cite shortage of funds,” he said. A senior MKU official said that in the State-level review meeting of universities held in Chennai on June 11, the Higher Education Secretary demanded details of MKU College to examine if it could also be converted into a government institution. “We are compiling details. We hope something good happens,” he said.

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