AUT & TNGCTA Opposed PSG
The Association of University Teachers (AUT) and the Tamil Nadu Government Collegiate Teachers’ Association (TNGCTA) have opposed conferring the status of unitary university on the PSG Institutions and Government Arts Colleges. “Privatisation will only benefit the management. Fee hike will be inevitable and this will adversely affect the students,” P. Jayagandhi, president of AUT, Tamil Nadu, told reporters here on Wednesday.K.G. Palani, general secretary of TNGCTA said: “The Higher Education Minister has said that the university status is to enhance quality in colleges. The government colleges do not have good infrastructure. They do not have good courses too. First a change in this regard should be brought about.” The AUT of PSG Institutions in a release here has said that it has never been and would never be anti-management. Its chairman N. Thirugnanasambandam said: “Even the fiercest critic of AUT cannot deny our transparency, competence, academic contributions and religious sense of commitment towards the PSG Institutions, even at times of crisis. We are happy with our present salary, status of aided staff and also with the Tamil Nadu Private Colleges Regulation Act governing us.”
The association has expressed apprehension over the pensionery benefits of 252 aided teaching staff and 121 non-teaching staff. “Even if the management were ready to look into these benefits, by no stretch of imagination would it be a viable proposition for it, however munificent it may be.” It said that the cost of education would shoot up in the name of rationalising the fee structure, which in turn would defeat the noble purpose of the founding fathers of the institutions. Unlike the State-run universities, the chancellor of a private university was vested with absolute powers. It feared that the university would be “a university of the management, by the management and for the management.”
V. Ponnuraj, president of Madurai University Teachers’ Association, added that they would hold demonstrations in front of colleges on June 17 after they reopen on 16. “The demonstrations will continue till July 19. If the Government brings in an Ordinance against our wishes, then we will intensify the agitation”
