The Hindu : Kerala News : `VCs not consulted on higher education issues'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Sep 04, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

`VCs not consulted on higher education issues'

By Our Staff Reporter

THRISSUR, SEPT. 3. Participants attending the South Zone Vice-Chancellors' Conference at the Kerala Agricultural University headquarters at Vellanikkara near here today said that the vice-chancellors are not being consulted by the Governments on issues related to higher education.

Presenting the theme paper on ``Emerging trends in higher education'', the Vice-Chancellor of the Gulberga University, V.B. Coutinho, said that vice-chancellors are not taken into confidence while preparing the vision document or discussing the policy issues.

AIU's role

Prof. Coutinho suggested that the Association of Indian Universities (AIU) would be the appropriate agency to give direction to the Governments in this regard. The participants felt that dearth of human power and lack of sufficient grants for research were two important constraints of Indian universities. They also demanded a control on the private and foreign universities operating in the country and that there should be only one centre for foreign universities.

The vice-chancellors reminded the students that they should be prepared to face the new challenges in education and that their communicating skills should be improved. The students should be made aware of the employment opportunities through the media. Emphasising the need for giving complete autonomy to the universities, they said the Government should have only a coordinating role.

Flexibility

However, the Vice-Chancellor of the Bharatidasan University said the Supreme Court verdict on autonomy of universities for curriculum development and other issues, was applicable only to the university campus and not to affiliated colleges. The Vice-Chancellor of the Ambedkar Open University, Ramachandran, called for flexibility in research institutions. He said that unless the University Grants Commission (UGC) extended financial support to open universities, their existence would be threatened.

Autonomy

The UGC Vice-Chairman, Rajasekharan Pillai, said that autonomy to the universities should be extended to the level of teachers. He said autonomous colleges should get additional grants. He also said that the students should have the freedom to opt for a teacher as was being done in foreign universities.

According to him the Indian universities are not listed among the 500 universities of the world. Dr. Pillai suggested that the universities should be multi-faculty and that students should have the dual degree facility.

See also Page 5

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