CHENNAI: The prestigious University of Madras has not given money for meeting out examination related expenses to the non-autonomous colleges affiliated to it and the varsity has also failed to give paper valuation amount to college teachers for the last two semester exams.
This was highlighted by the Tamil Nadu Government Collegiate Teachers’ Association through an urgent press release issued on December 12th 2024 seeking the immediate intervention of Higher Education Secretary and university authorities to settle the dues.
“Totally there are 145 colleges which are affiliated to the University of Madras. Of these, 23 are autonomous colleges and the remaining 122 are non-autonomous colleges. For conducting semester exams, the university gives money to non-autonomous colleges including the government colleges for meeting the exams expenses. However, the University of Madras which had collected exam fees from students had not given any amount to the colleges,” Mr.S.Suresh, general secretary, Tamil Nadu Government Collegiate Teachers’ Association, had pointed out in the press statement released here yesterday.
The usual procedure is that colleges collect the examination fees from students and remit it to the university. And then, the varsity will give expenses amount to all the non-autonomous colleges towards semester examinations expenses.
“In 2024, for the April and November semester exams, all the 122 non-autonomous colleges had collected exam fee in crores of rupees from students and gave to the varsity. But, the University of Madras did not give money to the colleges. We are requesting the Higher Education Secretary to issue orders to the university to pay the amount that is due to the colleges,” Mr.Suresh said.
He also gave a few examples to substantiate this point saying that the eight government colleges at Chengalpet, Uthiramerur, Nemmeli, Thiruvotriyur, RK Nagar, Thiruthani and Kundrathur had collected Rs.3 crores as exam fee from students and given to University of Madras.
“The amount that the university is supposed to give to these eight government colleges is Rs.30 lakhs, but we have not received so far for the last two semesters. College teachers are spending their own personal pocket money for exam expenses such as stationery etc. Also, several college teachers have not received the answerpaper valuation charges starting from November 2023 onwards. That is the plight right now in University of Madras,” the association had pointed out.
