Special drive to enrol students from minority communities, curtail dropouts in TN

CHENNAI: To increase the retention rate in higher educational institutions, the State government will be giving special attention in the enrolment of students belonging to minority communities and taking remedial measures to curtail dropouts.

The higher education department’s move to prioritise students from minority communities came against the backdrop of an expert committee’s recent recommendations to the State government.

A senior official in the department said that the panel had also recommended exploring the possibility of allowing minority communities to establish new State-level private universities, or set up offshore centres of well-known varsities established by the community in other countries. “There is also a proposal for the revision of the key existing regulations including the TN Private Colleges (Regulation) Act, 1976 and the TN Private Schools (Regulation) Act, 2018, to facilitate better administration, establishment of more aided institutions and providing opportunities for the minorities to offer new courses under the aided stream,” he added.

The regulatory body will have the power to regulate the admission procedure including admission of fixed percentage of the total intake of students from TN in each course every year (determined by the State government), fee structure, emolument structures for teaching and non-teaching staff as decided by the State, adopting reservation policy of the State and the allied issues.