| Saturday, July 12, 2008
Single window counselling: A perfect system
Chennai: The single window counselling for admission to government
quota seats in engineering colleges conducted by Anna University
(Chennai), has come a long way since it was first introduced
in 1997. Over the past 11 years, it has evolved as one of the
most transparent, efficient and student-friendly systems for
carrying out merit-based admissions in higher education. Besides,
it has withstood several legal tests.
Under single window counselling, aspirants are called for counselling
based on their cut-off scores and given the option of choosing
a preferred course in a favoured college.
Old timers recall that the seeds for launching the system were
sown in September 2006 when the State government had constituted
a committee headed by eminent academician M Anandakrishnan to
examine the possibility of having a centralised counselling
for professional courses admissions. The panel with former education
secretary Shetty and professor Dhiraj Lal as members had elicited
the views of a cross-section of stakeholders.
"In 1997, when the Unnikrishnan judgment was in vogue the
Anna University conducted the first ever single window counselling
to fill up seats on the basis of 50:50 free and payment seats
ratio using merit as a criteria. For two years, the association
of self-financing engineering college owners had unsuccessfully
challenged the admission process in the courts," recalled
an observer of higher education scene.
When counselling commenced in 1997, there were just 56 colleges
and by the end of the counselling the figure went up to 76 colleges.
Today, counselling is being held for admission in as many as
333 colleges. Also at that time, largely Civil Engineering and
Mechanical Engineering seats were available. Now the focus has
shifted to IT-related courses.
On a conservative estimate, 4, 50,000 students would have benefited
from the counselling. Till 2002, students were able to compete
for 100% seats in all colleges. But after the Supreme Court
judgment in the TMA Pai Foundation case, the proportion of seats
available under government quota had come down and now the ratio
is decided only by way of mutual consultation with self-financing
college owners.
Courtesy: The Times of India
|
