CHENNAI: Former Vice Chancellor of Anna University and present Chairman of IIT-Kanpur, M Anandakrishnan, on Monday lashed out at the present policies adopted by the University while attending a book release function at the campus on Monday. “If I were the Vice Chancellor (of Anna University), I would’ve closed down close to 50 per cent of the existing engineering colleges in the State,” said Anandakrishnan, taking a dig at the varsity’s policy of approving new colleges every year. He observed that the vast expansion of technical education in the State was “mindless” in nature.“Engineering colleges are becoming a playground for politicians,” he said and wondered how institutions could be expected to deliver on quality education and knowledge under such circumstances. Taking a dig at the present Vice Chancellor who in his speech at the function had stressed on inter-disciplinary learning, Anandakrishnan blamed the varsities like Anna University, IITs and NITs for not having thought about starting academic courses on subjects like Astronomy and Cosmology. “Despite having wonderful facilities like a planetarium close to the campus, institutions are yet to think about starting such courses. Inter-disciplinary courses will not come from somewhere,” he said.Lamenting on the drop in the intellectual output at Anna University, Anandakrishnan said, “We used to produce at least three-four books during our tenure, which were of remarkable quality. These books used to spread the brand image of Anna University to other states and countries. But in recent years the number of quality books have gone down despite the fact that there is enormous competition for knowledge,” he said. “The mindless expansion of technical education has reduced the teacher-student interaction and is trying to produce only robots,” he added.
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