58 Non-Equivalent Courses Identified, Tamil Nadu
The higher education department has identified 58 undergraduate and postgraduate courses offered by various universities, both within and outside the state, as not equivalent to traditional programmes. This means that students who have completed these courses are ineligible for public service employment. For example, the BCom in Company Secretaryship offered by the University of Madras has been declared non-equivalent to the BCom approved for public service, while the MSc in Medical Sociology offered by the same university has been declared non-equivalent to MA Sociology for public service. Similarly, the Master’s in Company Secretaryship and the BSc (Electronics) programme offered by Alagappa University are not equivalent to MCom and BSc Physics, respectively. Over 10,000 aspirants for government jobs are estimated to be affected by this decision.
Aruna Viswanathan, another affected student, said, ‘I aspired to become a lecturer in a government institution all my life but in one go, the higher education department shattered all my dreams. The government should have checked the courses and its quality properly before granting its nod.”
“Declaring courses as non-equivalent with conventional courses is a regular affair. An expert committee was formed to look into the issue of equivalence and non-equivalence subjects and the list was prepared with utmost care,” a senior official said.
