Tamil Nadu - Tiruchi

University flayed for introducing franchise

TIRUCHI: The Association of University Teachers and Tamil Nadu Government Collegiate Teachers’ Association have charged the Bharathidasan University with commercialising its distance education wing by introducing ‘franchise’ in “total contravention of the syndicate resolution”.

During a discussion held on the issue by the Joint Co-ordination Council (JCC) of the associations on Monday, speakers observed that the system whereby the university conducts the courses with the help of government or aided colleges in its jurisdictional area has been successful, and apprehended that the move to hand over administration of the correspondence courses to private parties would lead to a fall in educational standards.

Franchisees do not provide the necessary infrastructure and qualified teachers, A. Pasupathy, Secretary, JCC, said in a statement.

Many franchisees had started misusing the name of the university by issuing newspaper advertisements calling for applications from students for various courses, he said.

Expressing concern over the inauguration of the Mumbai Study Centre by the Vice-Chancellor even before the appointment of an inspection commission to assess suitability, the JCC executive alleged that no advertisement was given calling for applications from interested parties to start the study centres, and that some franchisees had been exempted from paying the application fee.

The meeting urged the university to adopt the model of Indira Gandhi National Open University for correspondence programmes.

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