Revenue-expenditure imbalance pushes BU to utilise interest proceeds from corpus funds to meet monthly expenses

Revenue-expenditure imbalance pushes BU to utilise interest proceeds from corpus funds to meet monthly expenses

The varsity had to close down over 400 franchises across the country.

THE HINDU BUREAU COIMBATORE. 17.07.2025

Apparent utilisation of interest proceeds of corpus funds by Bharathiar University for routine requirements due to revenue-expenditure imbalance has triggered apprehensions in academic circles that the institution has slipped into a financial quagmire.

For several months now, the university is understood to have been utilising a portion of the interest proceeds from the corpus funds for bridging the revenue deficit in meeting the monthly expenditure towards salary and other overheads. The interest proceeds otherwise get added to the principal, enlarging the corpus.

After the Distance Education wing, the cash cow until a decade ago, suffered a blow due to the stipulation of the University Grants Commission that State universities could operate only within the State’s territory, BU had to close down over 400 franchises across the country through which several degree and diploma courses were offered.

Examination fee

Since then, the university’s main source of revenue has been the examination fee and affiliation fee. The affiliation fee payment gets delayed due to the difficulty in getting the files approved in time by the Secretary of Higher Education.

Further, the sanction of block grant by the State government has been irregular over the last decade, BU sources said.

The fear among the faculty is that the eventual depletion of corpus funds will deny them of timely settlement of their retirement or pension benefits.

Absence of a regular Vice-Chancellor for more than three years due to which crucial decisions could not be taken is seen as the cause for the varsity’s drift sans direction.

“The tidings are ominous. The BU could end up facing the same financial crises as Madurai Kamaraj and Madras Universities,” said former Vice-Chancellor of BU G. Thiruvasagam under whose tenure from 2006 to 2009, the distance education was broad-based for revenue generation, and a substantial corpus was mobilised.

Appointment of a Vice-Chancellor with academic capabilities as also administrative acumen remains the only way out for the BU to steer clear of financial uncertainties, acknowledged Prof. Thiruvasagam, who is currently the Vice-Chancellor of AMET and also the nominee of the BU Senate in the Search Committee to choose the next Vice-Chancellor.

In general, State universities, most of which are functioning without regular Vice-Chancellors have been complaining that the frequent transfers of Secretary of Higher Education has only caused further deterioration in administration.

“IAS officials in the post, who are required to function as the Convenor of V-C Committees, get transferred even before they get to know the pattern of administration in State universities,” a senior professor of BU said, citing the six transfers made to the post in a span of just three years.

In light of the prevailing situation, members of teaching and non-teaching associations in BU, have their hopes pinned on the UGC for grant of permission to offer UG programmes under distance mode such that at least a break-even level could be attained.