After the Chennai-based anti-corruption group Arappore Movement found that a large number of faculty posts in engineering colleges affiliated to Anna University were filled by “fake” professors, Anna University in its own investigation found that 211 people had filled 2,500 vacancies in several colleges, including the same person holding different posts in more than 30 colleges.
Anna University Vice-Chancellor R. Velraj told The Indian Express that the university has found that these 211 people are working as full-time teachers in several colleges. Also, “It does not mean that they worked in all the colleges at the same time. It is in the records. Colleges have done this to maintain their affiliation during university-run surveys. These colleges may have paid some money for these professors to use their names on the records. It is a fraud to mislead the inspection teams I believe,” Velraj said.
Anna University has set up a high-level committee comprising officials from the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and state higher education departments to further study the issue. State Higher Education Minister Ponmudi has also sought a detailed report from Anna University.
While a preliminary inquiry conducted by Anna University found 211 professors holding multiple teaching posts, the Arappore Movement said its findings included 353 professors.
An Anna University investigation found that one of these 211 professors was listed as a teacher in 32 different colleges. According to the Vice-Chancellor’s office, 52,500 teachers are registered in 433 affiliated engineering colleges, of which 2,500 have been found to have fake teachers.
The NGO Arappore Movement has called for an immediate and thorough investigation against the former Director of the Center for Affiliation of Institutions (CAI) for Anna University, and members of the probe committee, 224 college administrators and 353 professors involved.
Director of Anti-Bribery Department, Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu M. G. StalinGovernor RN Ravi, Chief Secretary Sivadas Meena, Higher Education Minister Ponmudi and Higher Education Secretary Pradeep Yadav have been given a complaint.
Anna University’s Institutional Affiliation Center conducts annual surveys of engineering colleges in Tamil Nadu in which they assess the number of faculty, qualifications and infrastructure such as practice testing laboratories. Although the criteria for college affiliation are strict, AICTE requirements are based on these ratings, and the approval of each subject depends on the number of full-time professors and PhD holders, which is one of the main reasons for the presence of “fake” professors in colleges.
In a complaint filed by the Arappore Movement before Anna University and the state vigilance, AICTE found that 13,891 professors were found to have fraudulent identity cards despite the mandate that every professor should have a unique identity card. The crusader movement said this calls into question the competence of these professors and calls for a thorough investigation.
The issue of vacant posts in Anna University has been a controversy for the past few days. He expressed his displeasure over the large number of vacancies in the teaching posts Chennai A division bench of the high court directed the university registrar to explain the reasons for the delay in filling up these posts by October 2023.
As per AICTE norms, the university should have 1,745 faculty members, but only 981 posts have been sanctioned, out of which 556 are working.
