INTRODUCTION
The boyhood dream of an industrious and illustrious Chartered Accountant, Shri.CA.N.V.Natarajan, has become a reality through the establishment of Paavai Varam Educational Trust in the year 1997, aiming at providing quality education to the underprivileged younger generation especially from rural and remote regions in and around Rasipuram, a small South Indian town, a place known for its historical importance and traditional, commercial commodities, such as pure ghee, sago and silk in Tamil Nadu.
To realize vision of the Institutions, the focus is on either past or futuristic action. While, Paavai Engineering College takes immense pleasure in building on the legacy of its past and accustomed to think about future for a greater role to be played in the field of higher education and in the society at large. Institute in nearly two decades of its journey offering quality technical education to the aspirants of the rural area like Pachal (Namakkal District of TamilNadu), has crossed several mile-stones. To name a few, Accreditation by NAAC, accreditation by NBA and Conferment of autonomy.
Paavai Engineering College is an autonomous and self-finance institution and was established in the year 2001. At present the college offers 15 undergraduate programs leading to B.E/B.Tech. degree, seven postgraduate programs in engineering leading to M.E. degree and also MBA/MCA program and four Ph.Dprogrammes. The college imparts quality education and continuous efforts were made in upholding quality practices. It meets all the requirements more than the standards laid by the apex bodies. Dedicated and committed faculty teams strive hard for realizing the Vision through well-defined Mission. The college is practicing OBE since 2015 and successful in disseminating OBE culture from designing curriculum through assessment. Based on the AICTE model curriculum, the college tweaked its curriculum for improving the academic standards. The college is known for its state-of-the-art infrastructure consisting of centers of excellence, advanced laboratories, well stacked library and ICT facilities.
Situated at Namakkal,nearest railway station of 7kms distance and located on NH-44 highway and is well connected by road and rail. It is spread over 15.75 acres of clean, Green and serene area.
VISION
To strive to be a globally model Institution all set for taking ‘lead-role’ in grooming the younger generation socially responsible and professionally competent to face the challenges ahead.
MISSION
CRITERION WISE SUMMARY
Curricular Aspects
The Paavai Engineering College has been conferred autonomous status by UGC in 2015. There are 15 undergraduate programmes and seven post graduate programs including M.B.A and M.C.A under the autonomous Regulations-19(R-19). The academic Programmes under outcome based education defines Programme Educational Objectives which are achievable and it is consistent with Vision and Mission of the College.The Regulations have been amended and framed as and when it is required.The Regulations-16 and Regulations-19 have been framed after adopting CBCS pattern by following the norms of Anna University, Chennai, AICTE norms, NBA, TNSHE. The Regulations have been approved by the Academic Council of the college. The Regulations-19 is currentlyfollowed and implemented.The institution implements choice-based credit system (CBCS) and offers 160-165 credits for undergraduate programs, based on the AICTE model curriculum to suit the local and industry (global) requirements. The curriculum design and development process is flexible and it is continuous for quality enhancement of courses. The curriculum also includes courses that identify, nurture and develop entrepreneurs. The curriculum and courses are designed based on course objectives and intended course outcomes, which are in line with programme outcomes. The curriculum and course design includes content, pedagogy and technological part of the course. To enrich the curriculum, revision of syllabus is made through Board of studies of the department concerned, further it is approved by Academic council and Governing council for implementation. Under CBCS pattern, elective courses, internships, online courses, one credit courses, mandatory courses, audit courses, industrial visitsare offered. The college encourages students to do value added and skill development courses to develop their technical competency.The academic audits and feedback from stakeholders are in the process regularly for continuous improvements in Curriculum, design and delivery.
Teaching-learning and Evaluation
Paavai Engineering College attracts fairly good number of students in the state of the Tamil Nadu. It offers 15 UG and 7 PG programs and seats are filled through Tamil Nadu state counseling satisfying the number of seats earmarked under reserved categories as per the GO issued by the Government.The college prepares and adheres to the academic calendar and teaching plans regularly.The college adopts the student – centric learning and experiential learning as its corner stone in academic process.It has student community from diverse geographical regions/ethnicity and provides adequate support to cater to their varied learning needs.The faculty members are the pivotalfor teaching-learning process. They are highly qualified, experienced and dedicated team. Student-centric learning methods adopted and provide appropriate pedagogy for participative and experiential learning. To ensure the quality of teaching, learning and evaluation processes the revised Bloom’s taxonomy is referred and practiced by the college.The maxims of teaching such as known to unknown, simple to complex, concrete to abstract are followed and practiced. The faculty members practice the skill of Introduction, explanation, questioning, illustrating with examples, use of black board, use of ICT tools and closure in their day to day teaching-learning process. All the faculty members of the institution are trained in the contemporary and innovative methods of teaching and encouraged to attend various programmes on pedagogy training. The practices followed to achieve quality teaching and learning are ICT enabled, participatory learning, interactive learning, Peer learning, collaborative learning, quiz, discussion, seminar, project, laboratory method, project method, problem-solving method and on field training etc. Learner friendly approaches adopted by teachers motivate students to learn in a flexible manner. Faculty members always keep abreast of latest technology to make teaching effective. ICT is integrated in teaching through Learning management system enhance students’ experience. The college has automated examination system.The Program Outcomes are assessed using direct/indirect methods to identify educational and operational gaps to propose action plan for further integration in the strategic planning. Teaching learning processes are continually improved based on students’ results and students’ satisfaction.
Research, Innovations and Extension
Paavai Engineering College has separate Research &Development cell to promote research activities in right earnest initiative to inculcate research culture across the college. The college has provided all necessary facilities to the faculty members to undertake sponsored/ funded as well as consultancy projects of Private, both state and Central Government sectors. The collegeis always in the forefront to send the faculty members to different FDPs/ workshops/ training programs to update and undertake research works. Quite a good number of facultymembers are Ph.D Degree holders and many young faculty working for their Ph.D degrees in various Universities/ Institutions.
For the last five years, a steady growth in the faculty research outcomes is visible in terms of filing patents, publishing research papers in reputed journals and also fetching externally funded research projects from various government and non-government organizations. There are about 53 patents published by the faculty members. Till now approximately 453 research papers are published by our faculty members for the last five academic years. The quality of publications can be best understood by the h-index. The h-index of the publications of Paavai Engineering College is 20
In order to motivate the faculty to take-up research several incentive schemes are initiated by the college. In addition,support is extended for research to provide seed money based on a review of experts. Faculty members are deputed to national and international conferences to present their research findings and they are provided with travelling allowances. MoUs with Industries, companies, educational institutions of regional, national and International organizations is established.Centers of excellence are established in the campus to promote research oriented activities and develop students’ inherent talent and skills.
To encourage and motivate students’ involvement in research activities, a Institution Innovation council and Entrepreneurship Development cell is established conducts entrepreneurship awareness camps, talk series and ideation camps to promote entrepreneurship, innovation and incubation. The College is also actively involved in extension activities to help society by its services. The college organizes number of workshops and sensitization programs to create research spirit among teachers and students.
Infrastructure and Learning Resources
The college has an extensive Infrastructure spread over 15.75 acres with a total built up area 41661Sqm. The infrastructure comprises of Academic Building, Departments, State of the Art laboratories, Incubation Centre, Centres of excellence, well-furnished classrooms, Full-fledged office of Controller of Examinations, Auditoriums/Conference Halls, Health Care Centre, Roads, backup power supply systems and Water supply including mineral water plant etc.
The college has 80 classrooms, out of which 72 classrooms are ICT enabled, 6 drawing halls and 5 seminar halls. The Computer Centre monitors the network connectivity throughout the campus with 1Gbps with 189 secured access points.. The Library housed in a spacious building with the seating capacity of 120 and has the following: Titles -11225 Volumes- 46310Printed Journals – National: 144& International: 126 Online access of international databases (digital library). The college is a Member of National Digital Library andNPTEL video lectures are available for reference Reprographic/Scanning/Printing facilities. Departmental libraries for ready reference
Sports facilities include Cricket, Football grounds, Basketball, Volleyball, Tennikoit courts for outdoor games and indoor stadium for Ball badminton, chess, carrom board etc. The Amenities include separate Boys and Girls Hostels, Common rooms, Toilets, Gymnasium, Yoga center, ATM center, Stores, Clinic, Union bank, canteen, extension counter Cafeteria and Sick room with all necessary facilities are available. The college promotes socialization by organizing cultural activities in auditoriums and college open area. From the feedback of stakeholders adequate budget for upgrading, maintaining and utilizing physical, academic and support facilities is ensured.
Student Support and Progression
The students are taken care of by providing various facilities in the form of indoor and outdoor sports facilities, encouragement for participation in co-curricular activities, besides supporting deserving students with financial assistance from the college and assisting them to benefit from the Govt. scholarship schemes. The institution is providing scholarships/fee concession to meritorious and poor students. The institution publishes its updated prospectus, which highlight the facilities available in the college having information about different committees of the college, college annual calendar, Yoga and meditation, NSS, library facilities, sports activities and career counseling, etc. The college has redressal mechanism, where all grievances are addressed timely and necessary action has been taken and recorded.The college has separate Training and Placement Cell through which the Eligible students are placed in reputed companies.The college involves Students in various committees like Board of Studies, Department Associations, Technical clubs, Sports clubs, Cultural clubs and National Service Scheme (NSS), YRC, under Ullas trust students are going to rural schools to teach the students of that particular school,and it cater to the overall growth and success rate of the institution.The Alumni Network supports the institution and contributes to its institutional and academic development. It is a registered one. The students are actively participated in all the activities of the college so that they inculcate the responsibility as a student and as a citizen. The college conducts Alumni meet every year along with abroad students, to bring together all the old students to share their experiences with faculty. The College believes and promotes wholesome/holistic education. Accordingly, the students were provided with wide variety of self-learning opportunities under mentorship. They are empowered to carryout/organize activities independently to hone their soft skills like team work, collaborative activities, networking among the peers and thus building self confidence.
Governance, Leadership and Management
In tune with the institutional vision and mission, the governance of Paavai Engineering College is participative and decentralized management in decision making process. The college exhibits its effective leadership by imparting world class quality education & training to students and instills human values, ethics and environmental concern for the wellness of the country.The institution implements several welfare schemes to aid the teaching and nonteaching staff. The institution provides financial support for teachers to attend conferences, workshops and towards membership fee of professional bodies. The institution implements e-governance in the areas of planning & development, administration, finance & accounts, student admission & support and examination. The institution engages qualified Auditors and Accountants for the conduct of internal and external financial audits at regular periodical intervals.Under IQAC initiatives, the college strategically enhanced the quality of Teaching and Learning Process through continuous new initiatives such as Faculty Self-Appraisal, Training Programs for Teaching, Non-Teaching training programs, Workshops, Conferences, Research related activities, Educational Reforms, Setting the Quality Bench Marks, Key Performance Indicators, Incentives, Academic and Administrative Auditing (both internal & external), and Student Mentoring System etc.As per IQAC norms, the institution reviews it teaching learning process, structures & methodologies of operations and learning outcomes at periodic intervals.
Institutional Values and Best Practices
Paavai Engineering College throws its focus on quality based technical education besides promoting values and ethics among the students of rural background. The institution makes sincere efforts to empower gender equity and equality. The anti-ragging committee and squads monitor and ensure that the college and hostels are free from ragging. The college also thrusts its attention on waste management steps including solid, liquid and E-Waste management.
Our College has successfully installed the rainwater harvesting system to effectively use the water resources.The college has prioritized the green practices and eco-friendly environment in the campus. Inculcating social responsibility in students through extension activities such as Tree plantation, blood donation, awareness rally on road safety, health and hygiene awareness, Aadhar camp, Voters ID camp, cleaning the school, under Unnat Bharat Abhiyan, the college has adopted five villages and so on. In order to inculcate the culture of India, Value Oriented practices such as PadhaPooja to parents during Induction programme and salutation to the teachers in the form of PadhaPooja on Teacher’s day are encouraged. These practices have tremendous change in the behavior of the students. These are the best practices of the campus along with other practices.Placement training programme is being regularly conducted by the college through Placement and Training Cell of the college to make app students employable. The training includes aptitude, soft skill, communication skill, group discussion, technical skills and so on. The tier-I and tier-II companies are invited for campus recruitment.The placement record has been improved gradually.
The college always adopts uniqueness in moulding the personality of the students by following its own Distinctiveness, Christened as “Mandatory registration for internships for all students”.Themain objectiveof this internship isto transform thestudents’ community into economically independent citizens. This is unique, because it is adopted under the principle, “Earn while you learn”.The uniqueness of this practice is internship is provided by all the college, but our college made registration mandatory for all the students to do internship through Internshala and expose the students to global market and international requirement.Many students have emerged as an app developer, software developer, programmer and an entrepreneur.
Strength, Weakness, Opportunity and Challenges (SWOC)
Institutional Strength
Institutional Weakness
Institutional Opportunity
Institutional Challenge
Additional Information
Concluding remarks
Paavai Engineering College with support from its visionary management, proficient administrators, an initiative and operative leader as a principal, committed and dedicated faculty members have been on growth trajectory with respect to quality and quantity assurance and sustenance, since its inception 2001.
Under IQAC initiative of the college, a SWOC analysis was done in a structured manner involving all the faculty members and this analysis together with the core values of Paavai Engineering College formed the basis for developing a strategic plan to evolve with the Vision of the Institution.The results of the SWOC analysis together with the core values, vision and mission of the institute as well as the perception of the institute about its social responsibilities formed the basis for developing the strategic plan.
The activities towards promoting research, industry-academia interface, faculty with research idea and doctoral degree, extension and outreach programmes have helped the college to transform from teaching institute into a research institute. All the activities of the college such as curricular aspect, teaching-learning, research, infrastructure, student support and Institutional values and practices are done under the guidance of IQAC cell of the college.
The college always made its attempt to mould students into a holistic personality, the curricular aspects such as elective courses, value added courses, one credit courses, skill development courses are offered and the technical paper presentation, internships, industrial visit, project is provided to make the students professional competent. The sports and extension activities are carried out regularly to inculcate the social consciousness in students. Paavai engineering College has been awarded, Champions of Champion Trophy’ by the Anna University Sports board for the past five consecutive years. Thus the college has taken efforts to shape the overall personality of the students and emerge as a socially responsible and professionally competent students.
The Management, Administrators, Principal, CoE, Deans, HoDs, faculty members, staff and students work as one team and are sharply focussed on raising the standard of the college to a greater heights. The college is on the venture of becoming an Institute of National reputation and gaining International importance as well.