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Attn: Respected Vice Chancellor of Anna university,

The voice of the dead.

Recently, I happened to read through the vice chancellor's comments and observations at the Graduation day ceremony at the Karunya Institute of Technology,Coimbatore. Being an alumni of the prestigious university, I wanted to sound out my views on the activities of the varsity, especially its move to curb the freedom of the students.

The vice Chancellor said, Education and Research were vital to the development of the country.I share his apprehension too, in that not many of our students consider research as a career. And that a major percentage of the same students willingly take up research career abroad. The cause for this abnormality has been discussed in detail at every place possible. So Im not going to describe the same here. But apart from money and recognition, which has been constantly blamed as a reason to this problem, there is also another whole class of problems which has never been given the right amount of attention that it deserves. And I beleive, even if the same amount of money and recognition is available at our country,which is fast becoming the norm than the exception, the trend cannot be reversed. For, when we say students should do research, it is not like asking them to pass an exam or attend a class. As has been successfully demonstrated by our school examinations, one can easily come out with flying colors in any subject,even if he doesnt have any great passion for the subject. Research oriented students care reasonably less about money and recognition, than about the academic environment that sustains them.

And what do we have as an academic environment? well, an academic environment which feels like a polished equivalent of tyranny does not deem apt to nurture the 'best of the brains' that he so passionately calls upon. To groom talent and creativity, the minds of the students need to be opened. They need to be taught to ask questions,to doubt and to develop an independent thinking mind. Unfortunately, the university under the vice chancellor seems to be doing everything exactly opposite of what is needed. It is intimidating the young student's mind, trying to frighten them and stifling the naturally curious mind that they possess when they join for higher education. Mr.Vice Chancellor, you might think you are inculcating discipline among the students, but in reality you are standing right in the way of where you claim, you are taking the university. If you do have time, do read the histories of the other great universities and the geniuses that came out of them. Why go that far? You might as well take a sneek peek at the Indian Institute of Technology which is Just opposite to your campus. Although I would not showcase IITs as the model environment, they do much much better job at grooming students than what you and your faculty are doing. The finer point, lies in understanding the fact that an university is not an extended version of the high school. In high schools you deal with teenagers and a bit of discipline and rules might be necessary. At an university , you are dealing with young men and women, who need to be groomed into the path of science and engineering. They are to be developed as model engineers, who stand upright with honor, as you ask them to do at every convocation. But whom do you expect will teach them?

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