CHENNAI: Academicians have expressed concern over the move to exclude students from government-aided colleges and self-financing institutions under the Chief Minister Research Grant (CMRG) this year.
Pointing out that Tamil Nadu has the highest Gross Enrolment Ratio in higher education in the country, J Gandhiraj, president, Association of University Teachers Tamil Nadu (AUT), said the achievement was due to government and aided institutions.
“Now, the government has begun to treat aided institutions with a discriminatory and hostile attitude,” Gandhiraj alleged. Under the scheme in 2023, teachers and students can apply for grants of around Rs 40 lakh and Rs 20 lakh, respectively.
AT Senthamarai Kannan, general secretary of the umbrella organisation, Madurai Kamaraj, Manonmaniam Sundaranar, Mother Teresa, and Alagappa University Teachers Association (MUTA), said, “The 2026-27 CMRG announcement explicitly says ‘aided and self-finance HEIs are not covered under CMRG’. This clearly reflects the discrimination against the research carried out at government-aided colleges. What began in 2023 as an implicit exclusion has now been openly declared in the official announcement, which is deeply worrying.”
He further alleged that the aided college teachers have already been denied promotion to associate professor positions.
“Because of this, teachers who serve as research supervisors are unable to admit two more research scholars each, resulting in a situation where more than a thousand students from poor, marginalised, and most backward communities have already lost opportunities to pursue PhD research. This loss can never be compensated. Such discrimination against students cannot be accepted under any circumstances.”