KOCHI: Globalisation may be knocking at your doors, but engineering colleges in the country still seem to be left in a time warp. How else would you explain the difficulties in getting inter-state university transfers in the engineering colleges?Almost all the engineering colleges and universities in the country fall under All India Council for Technical Education ( AICTE). But if an engineering student of any university in a state under the AICTE wants to switch to a university of another state, then he or she is heading for stormy waters.To start with, the guidelines under the UGC do not seem too menacing. All that is required for a transfer is the availability of a seat in the college under the new university and the approval of both the universities. But the second part of the guideline, namely ‘approval of the universities’ is not easy as it looks. In fact, in some universities the issue is not about the process being ‘not easy’ but about it being impossible.Cusat for instance, is clear in its policy that it will not admit students from any other university. “Even if all the universities come under the AICTE guidelines there can be changes in the course content. We constantly update our syllabus. As such, even if the papers are exactly the same, the content might be different. So we do not permit students from other universities to join in between the course.” said Suresh Kumar, Public Relations Officer, Cusat.But ones like the MG University are more forthcoming, at least on paper. Institutions which come under the MG University issue a ‘no objection certificate’ if basic criteria like availability of a seat, syllabus compatibility and marks tally is met. But further decisions have to be taken by the University. “But usually the applications which go to the university for approval hardly come back. In fact, we have not had any precedents here,” said Jacob Peter, Public Relations Officer, FISAT. “It is a huge problem for children of anyone with a transferable job,” agrees the Deputy, Director of Collegiate Education, P K Velayudhan.“The students can get a transfer only if the syllabus is the same. Otherwise he or she will have to rewrite all the papers where there is a change, at their own risk. But this is possible only in universities where this option is mentioned in the norms. There are other hurdles also. For instance, transfer is not possible from an institution where there is an internal assessment to an institution without an internal assessment or vice-verse,” he said.
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