Warning over rankings and funding-linked metrics
A former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Madras and educationist, Thiruvassagam, has cautioned that Tamil Nadu’s decision to not adopt the Centre’s National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 could adversely affect the rankings of 24 state government universities in the state.
Letter to the Chief Minister
In a letter addressed to Chief Minister Vijay, he noted that Tamil Nadu has 58 universities, of which 24 are under the state government. He claimed that 1,396 of the country’s 1,420 universities—across central, state and private categories—have accepted NEP, while Tamil Nadu’s central, private and deemed universities have already adopted it and are receiving full funding for education and research schemes.
Impact on students and institutions
According to him, the 24 government universities and their 2,883 affiliated colleges have not accepted NEP, potentially affecting 24.79 lakh students, along with teachers and parents. He argued that concerns raised by the state and political leaders—such as alleged harm to Tamil—are unfounded, and said the state education policy cannot serve as a substitute for NEP.
NAAC draft proforma and possible score loss
He pointed to a draft proforma for quality assessment where the first question asks whether an institution is implementing NEP. If the answer is “no”, he said institutions could lose 100 marks, effectively limiting their eligibility to 900 out of 1,000 in ranking assessments, with further losses possible in other parameters.
Suggested course of action
Thiruvassagam said universities could place NEP 2020 before their syndicate, academic council and senate and pass a resolution to accept it, without implementing it “as-is”. He suggested adapting it to Tamil Nadu’s education system while ensuring no adverse impact on the mother tongue, arguing that this would help improve the global standing of higher education in the state.
