The reputation of Bangalore University (BU, estb. 1964), already muddied by consistently falling teaching-learning and research standards, crumbling infrastructure and persistent government interference, was further muddied in mid-November. An ugly confrontation with caste overtones brought students out on the streets in protest on November 16, and halted all classes in one of Asia’s largest universities with 473 affiliated colleges and an aggregate enrolment of 700,000 students.
In an unseemly row that provoked newspaper headlines, vice chancellor Dr. N. Prabhu Dev refused to allow the varsity’s newly-appointed registrars — M.G. Krishnan and M.S. Talwar — to assume official charge on the sprawling 1,100-acre university campus on November 16. The registrars who had been appointed by an order dated November 13 of the Karnataka state government’s higher education ministry, were asked by Prabhu Dev to cease and desist from assuming office until his office “received official communication from the chief minister’s office”.
This unprecedented stay order angered a large section of BU students who alleged that the vice chancellor was reluctant to accept the registrars’ appointment because of “caste considerations”. According to media reports, Prabhu Dev had recommended two candidates from his Lingayat caste to be appointed registrars. However since both his candidates were rejected by the higher education minister Arvind Limbavalli, Prabhu Dev sought to buy time by stalling the new registrars. However his last-ditch attempts to get the chief minister’s office to reverse the appointments failed, with Limbavalli adamantly refusing to roll back his ministry’s decision.
Eventually after three days of student and faculty protests, rumour-mongering and uncer-tainty, on November 19 registrars Krishnan and Talwar assumed charge, while the vice chancellor was in Delhi reportedly for Children’s Day celebrations.
On his return from Delhi on November 20 Prabhu Dev did a volte-face. “I had suggested two people for the post of registrars to help me run the day-to-day affairs at BU. As I didn’t know Prof. Krishnan or Prof. Talwar, I didn’t recommend their names. Now that I have met them we look forward to work for the betterment of the university,” said Prabhu Dev at a press conference in Bangalore.
Meanwhile with Bangalore University’s top management preoccupied with petty politicking and courting controversies, infrastructure facilities and academic standards at this once highly-reputed university are going from bad to worse. According to a report in The Times of India (October 20) BU hostels are “hell-holes” infested with rats, stinking toilets, with more than four students sharing small cramped rooms. On the academic front, faculty shortages, caste-based faculty appoint-ments, outdated curriculums and poor student learning outcomes have plunged the reputation of the university into the pits. Add to this constant political interference in the appointment of members to the Bangalore University Syndicate — the university’s highest decision-making authority.
“Bangalore University is increasingly being sucked into a vortex of caste and political controversies. The state government and political parties seem to regard the university as a recruitment ground and an institution for granting favours to cronies. Neither academic interests nor welfare of students have been given sufficient attention for many years. The first reform should be to establish the autonomy of the BU syndicate. Only then can issues such as challenging political appointments, the erosion of academic standards, absence of democratic processes of governance, and the inability to pursue education in an ethical manner can be addressed,” says Dr. A.R. Vasavi, an alumna of Delhi and Michigan State universities, and currently professor of social sciences at the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore.
Clearly Bangalore University needs an urgent makeover. Instead of settling scores, the first priority of vice chancellor Prabhu Dev and his team should be to focus on life-and-death issues such as poor infrastructure, obsolete syllabuses and pedagogies which have plunged this pioneer varsity’s academic reputation to its nadir. But as the ugly incidents of mid-November are testimony, the rot may have permeated too deep into the foundations of this once highly-reputed university.
Summiya Yasmeen (Bangalore)