Karnataka - Bangalore

Ensure clean toilets, power and water: panel

BANGALORE: The first Academic and Administrative Audit (AAA) report of Bangalore University has thrown up some surprises: Lined up as a specific recommendation for immediate implementation, is maintenance of cleanliness in academic departments, classrooms and laboratories. It is down to basics: students and teachers first want their laboratories and toilets to have continuous water supply, and uninterrupted power supply and drinking water in the departments.

The 66-page report, placed before the University Syndicate on Tuesday, also talked about the need for cleanliness on the Jnanabharathi campus canteen and the guest house. The existing university hostels had to be given a facelift to provide “an educational-cum-living ambience for the students.”

This, the report said, should be achieved by providing modern kitchens and dining halls, continuous water supply and power supply and “eviction of unauthorised persons occupying the hostel rooms.”

Examination reforms and time-bound announcement of results was a priority for the AAA panel, which wanted the university to urgently conduct a “need assessment” of the entire examination system to make it more efficient and transparent.

Among the reforms suggested were full computerisation, preparation of question bank in each subject, bar-coding of all pages of answer scripts to avoid malpractice, and a professional misconduct enquiry panel to look into complaints.

To boost the learning process in the university, the report urged the varsity to immediately ensure audio-visual classrooms fitted with multimedia equipment, lecture theatres, and departments networked through the Internet with adequate bandwidth.

All the administrative staff had to be trained in computers and office software. The AAA committee, chaired by the former Vice-Chancellor of Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences S. Chandrashekhar Shetty, had its first meeting with the Bangalore University Vice-Chancellor, Registrar and members of the Internal Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC) on April 4.

Since then, the panel did a desk evaluation of the background data of various university units furnished by the IQAC; sought clarifications and additional inputs on the university’s constituents; visited academic departments, administrative units and support systems; and verified inputs with the varsity administration before submitting its report as general and specific recommendations.

Finding that even the ongoing projects in the university departments were unable to fully receive the sanctioned grants, the report cited non-submission of utilisation certificates in time as a reason.

A vigilance system to visibly project the “social credibility” of the university was another key proposal of the panel, which noted that such a scheme was already in practice in several Central and State varsities. The panel sought a separate “vigilance officer and a team” to oversee the university’s public contact areas such as examination and admission divisions.

Over the next five years, the AAA panel wanted the university to work on introducing a school concept in its departments to maximise academic output of the faculty and use of available teaching and research infrastructure; a choice-based credit system, reorganise its boards of studies and modernise its distance education.

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