Thumbs down to mono-faculty varsities

Updated on: Tuesday, August 30, 2011

The South Zone Vice-Chancellors' Conference held at the Infosys campus in Mysore recently gave a platform to the heads of universities, former vice-chancellors and academicians to discuss and develop strategies to facilitate the growth of higher education.

The two-day conference which had the participation of about 50 vice-chancellors from the State, Central, Open, Deemed and Private universities from Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Pondicherry saw meaningful debates and exchanges on the status of university education, the quality of higher education, the challenges facing higher education etc.

Hosted by the University of Mysore and organised by the Association of Indian Universities (AIU), the conference, aiming at supporting the University Grants Commission (UGC) in developing a “knowledge-based information society”, provided a platform to vice-chancellors and others involved in higher education to develop strategies for achieving academic excellence.

Majority of the speakers at the discussion sessions of the conference opposed mono-faculty universities. Some opined that the number of colleges affiliated to a university should be restricted as this was affecting the quality of university education. There were suggestions on converting the universities into centres of creativity and innovation.

M.I. Savadatti, vice-chairman, Higher Education Council, Government of Karnataka, said the government should take a policy decision to discourage setting up of single faculty or mono-faculty universities. “They (the government) can establish single faculty institutions like Indian Institute of Science (IISc) but should not encourage creation of mono-faculty universities,” he opined.

Not viable

Prof. Savadatti, who spoke on the topic “University status and expectations', felt that it is not a viable proposition to have separate universities for agriculture, horticulture and veterinary sciences besides universities for Kannada, Sanskrit, Vedic Studies, Hindi, Telugu and others. “The government should not change the structure of the conventional university system. The central universities should not be established on these lines,” he suggested.

Contending that conventional universities are highly productive, Prof Savadatti said, “80 percent of the workforce comes from the universities; elite institutions contributed only 20 per cent”.

With the fast expanding global economy, the country's economy continues to depend on universities for the supply of large workforce and strengthening of the conventional university system was necessary.

H.K. Ranganath, director, National Assessment and Accreditation Council, was also not in favour of promoting mono-faculty universities. “Holistic approach in higher education is fast disappearing and the growing trend of mono-faculty institutions is not a good idea.”

Prof. Ranganath, former vice-chancellor of Bangalore University, said the universities have to evolve as platforms for creativity and innovation. But, it is a challenge to transform universities into such centres.

Another academician, P. Venkataramaiah, also opposed the concept of mono-faculty universities and suggested that the character of a conventional university should not be altered.

Prof. Venkataramaiah, who is a former vice-chancellor of Kuvempu University, said: “The basic concept of a university did not envisage mono-faculty universities. Our administrators need to keep this in mind when new universities are established.”

Affiliation

One of the reasons for the decline in the quality of university education is the system of affiliation, feels Prof. Venkataramaiah. Reforms that were suggested by many education commissions, especially to reduce the affiliation, since 1960, have not been implemented. At the same time, it is not possible to avoid the present affiliation system. However, there is an urgent need to restrict the number of colleges affiliated to a university. There should be ideally 50 colleges but not more than 100 colleges per university under the affiliation system, he advised.

Even UGC member K. Ramamurthy Naidu suggested restricting the number of colleges affiliated to a university.

According to Prof. Ranganath, there is a demand for liberalising the criteria for accreditation by the stakeholders. However, diluting the criteria is not advisable. Instead, the institutions could be strengthened with better infrastructure and resourcefulness, he suggested.

Word of caution

Arjula Ramachandra Reddy of Yogi Vemana University, Kadapa, Andhra Pradesh, said quality has become a casualty in most State universities and feared that this may lead to a downtrend in the field of higher education. “Research-based teaching is the only solution to prevent decline in the quality of higher education,” he added.

Thumbs down to mono-faculty varsities

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