Parallel college

This article is about the college system. For the 1991 Malayalam film, see Parallel College (1991 film).

A parallel college is a privately owned educational institution in Kerala (a state of India), which is not affiliated to any university, neither recognized by any, but offers training for courses following the courseware of a university quite unofficially. This system works because most of the universities in Kerala allow what is called 'private registration', in which a student can register in a university for a course, and then could pursue an academic programme without being admitted to a college or a university department, but learn the courseware all by oneself and then appear for examination at the university. And these students who pursue a 'private study' do rely on parallel colleges for tuition and guidance. Such a system had become popular in Kerala because the total intake capacity of the affiliated colleges were inadequate to contain the aspirants for higher (tertiary) education.

Parallel colleges were always small scale institutions with very limited facilities. They offered training only in 'arts' (social sciences and literature) or 'commerce' faculties (BA, B.Com, MA, M.Com) and never in 'science' or 'technical' faculties. This was because science courses required lab facilities.

The demise

Parallel colleges were very popular and were, in fact, centres of education for the masses in the 70s through 90s. But by the end of the 2000s this system has come to a demise, following the state opening the higher education sector to private investors, which has caused a surge in the number of private engineering colleges and other privately owned professional colleges, which leaves many of the conventional (affiliated) degree colleges under-populated, ceasing the reason for the very existence of the parallel system.

Tutorial colleges

Tutorial colleges are institutions similar to parallel colleges with more limited scope. While parallel colleges impart full training to its students, tutorial colleges merely supplement the lessons given by colleges or schools.

External links

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