Five city colleges get ‘potential for excellence’ status

Chennai: The quality of infrastructure and teaching facilities seem to have clinched the issue for five city institutions that made it to UGC's list of colleges with potential for excellence this time. The number of colleges, affiliated to University of Madras, that have the status has shot up to five from just one college that figured in the earlier list.
Madras Christian College, Women's Christian College, Stella Maris, Justice Basheer Ahmed College for Women (erstwhile SIET) and DG Vaishnav College, all from Chennai, and CMS College of Coimbatore and Vivekananda College in Madurai, which figured in the list announced on Tuesday, will receive a Rs 1.5 crore grant over a span of five years.
"All five Chennai colleges have fantastic infrastructure, quality faculty and a good student-teacher ratio," said Madras University officials. While the quality has improved across colleges, university officials attribute the rising numbers to better awareness.
"The awareness about what to project was pretty low the last time when colleges applied. This time the 20 colleges that applied were well prepared," said registrar David P Jawahar.
University officials ensured that all parameters were in place and colleges complied with the requirements. Most of the seven colleges said they planned to use the grants to up the digital and tech quotient.
MCC principal R W Alexander Jesudasan said many colleges were still stuck in the chalk and board format. "We plan to utilise funds for digitising the library and upgrading laboratories. We also want to improve amenities, especially for women students."
Stella Maris principal Sister Jasintha Quadras said the focus was on Information Communication and Technology (ICT) was increasing. "We have been consistently focusing on upgrading infrastructure quality, teaching and research."