Tamil Nadu way ahead of the rest of the country in Gross Enrolment Ratio: AICTE Chairman

Tamil Nadu leads in higher education enrollment, emphasizing the importance of upskilling and adapting to technological disruptions.

With more than half the students in Tamil Nadu who pass the higher secondary exam enrolling themselves into colleges, the State has already achieved what the whole country aims to do by the year 2035, Prof. T.G. Sitharam, Chairman, All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) said here today.

Addressing students on the graduation day of St. Joseph’s College of Engineering and St. Joseph’s College of Technology in Chennai, Prof. Sitharam said Tamil Nadu has a Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) of more than 50 per cent in higher education, while in the rest of the country it was only 29 per cent. He said the State has done remarkably well in engineering education, while underscoring the role played by the private institutions towards improving the GER.

Prof. Sitharam said while degrees are important, upskilling is a priority in the world of technological disruptions. Whether it is Artificial Intelligence, generative AI, cyber security, robotics, or blockchain, these disruptions are changing the way people thought or worked. “In this world of disruptions, you have to be constantly self-aware and keep up with these technologies,” he asserted, adding that besides picking up domain skills, students should also be prepared to pick up soft skills or any form of art or music to protect themselves from technological disruptions.

Later, talking to reporters, Prof. Sitharam said that the NITI Aayog, in collaboration with the AICTE and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), has launched an initiative titled DX-EDGE (Digital Excellence for Growth and Enterprise) to digitally and technologically empower Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME). This could mean that out of the eight crore MSMEs in the country, a large number of them could benefit from the use of AI that could have a 20 to 30 per cent increase in revenue.

When asked if the AICTE considered drawing up an ethical framework for the use of AI, Prof. Sitharam said putting up guardrails could limit innovation. Instead, higher learning institutions should inculcate a culture of ethics among students on how to use AI, when to use it and full disclosure on usage.

A total of 2,374 students of batches of 2023 and 2024 graduated from the St. Joseph’s College of Engineering while 1,046 students of batches of 2023 and 2024 graduated from St. Joseph’s College of Technology.