Oct 15 2014 : The Times of India (Chennai)
How Madras Univ can move out of cesspool
Chennai:
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
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The recent incident of the University of Madras awarding a contract to maintain a non-existent swimming pool to a private player exposes not just irregularities, but a lack of focus, feel academics.Teachers in the university said it recruited more than 90 faculty members in a recent drive — which, incidentally, came after much delay — and that it is yet to redistribute faculty members to departments that are short of staff. “There are departments that have students but no faculty, and there are others with no students but teachers who have no classes to take,” said a faculty member. For instance, the nanotechnology department of the university, which has no students, has two faculty members.
Academics said that the university , which has been showing accounts of funds spent, is allocating precious lit tle for projects that need money. “There is no focus on real issues,“ a faculty member said.
Faculty members said that many of the departments have no postgraduate students, but account books are generated showing just research schol ars. “Some market-oriented departments like management studies get around 1,000 applications for 60 seats, but other departments like religious studies do not get as many candidates. There is no effort to make these departments attractive or to update the curriculum,” said an academic.
Some senior faculty members mentioned that some of the new departments have not yet been allocated classrooms.
One professor said that in some cases only the head of the department has a room; there is no classroom. Some of the departments function out of a 10x20 foot room. “Before starting new departments and courses, shouldn’t the university form a committee to study where the classrooms and library for the departments should come up?” said a professor.
Academics said that one of the main reasons why issues of the university are not prioritised in the syndicate are because government nominees rarely make an appearance at these meetings. “They must show more interest in what is happening in the institution that is in charge of so many affiliated colleges and has many students under its wings. It is a matter of higher education in the state, not just that of a single university,” said a syndicate member of the university.
Academics said that the university , which has been showing accounts of funds spent, is allocating precious lit tle for projects that need money. “There is no focus on real issues,“ a faculty member said.
Faculty members said that many of the departments have no postgraduate students, but account books are generated showing just research schol ars. “Some market-oriented departments like management studies get around 1,000 applications for 60 seats, but other departments like religious studies do not get as many candidates. There is no effort to make these departments attractive or to update the curriculum,” said an academic.
Some senior faculty members mentioned that some of the new departments have not yet been allocated classrooms.
One professor said that in some cases only the head of the department has a room; there is no classroom. Some of the departments function out of a 10x20 foot room. “Before starting new departments and courses, shouldn’t the university form a committee to study where the classrooms and library for the departments should come up?” said a professor.
Academics said that one of the main reasons why issues of the university are not prioritised in the syndicate are because government nominees rarely make an appearance at these meetings. “They must show more interest in what is happening in the institution that is in charge of so many affiliated colleges and has many students under its wings. It is a matter of higher education in the state, not just that of a single university,” said a syndicate member of the university.
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