Government indifference pushes Telangana universities into doldrums

Last week, the campus of the Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge Technologies (RGUKT) located at Basara in Telangana was in turmoil. All the 7,000 students went on strike demanding a regular vice-chancellor.

Popular as IIIT, the university, set up in 2008, in the days of the united Andhra Pradesh, hasn’t had a vice-chancellor since 2015. In June 2022, following a similar protest, the then BRS government promised a regular vice-chancellor. But the government only replaced the acting vice-chancellor (an IAS officer) with another interim vice-chancellor, this time an academic.

Governments ignore universities

The Congress government, which came to power in 2023, has also not been able to appoint a vice-chancellor even after nine months in office.

The university, established as a Centre of Excellence for the benefit of rural students, fell into disfavour with the BRS that came to power after the creation of Telangana in 2014. It was alleged that the BRS leadership gave short shrift to the university as it was established by YS Rajasekhar Reddy, a Congress leader and anti-Telangana chief minister, and named after Rajiv Gandhi.

Students believe the previous BRS government did not favour the extension of the facilities similar to the ones available in IITs to the rural and poorer students.

Corruption in universities

Now, the students of Satavahana University at Karimnagar are on strike demanding the appointment of a regular vice-chancellor. They alleged that the absence of a regular vice-chancellor had turned the university into a den of corruption.

They want an inquiry into the activities of the examination branch of the university. It may be recalled here that the vice-chancellor of Telangana University, Nalgonda, was caught by the Anti-Corruption Bureau taking a bribe in 2022.

The situation is equally worse in all state-run universities. According to Dr Kondalrao Velchala, a former director of Telugu Academy, universities are the most neglected area in the state. Stating that it has become a habit for the governments to run the universities without a vice-chancellor for years, Kondala Rao warned that this attitude will have serious consequences leading to law-and-order problems.

Missing vice-chancellors

In the past 10 years, the BRS government has appointed vice-chancellors only twice. After the formation of Telangana, no vice-chancellor had been appointed between 2014 and 2016. Later, between 2019 and 2021, there were no appointments.

The term of the vice-chancellors, appointed in 2021, has ended in May 2024. So far, the process of appointing vice-chancellors has not been completed even after four months, leaving the university administration in disarray.

This has badly affected the students from SC, ST, and OBC communities as they constitute 90 per cent of the strength of traditional universities, says Prof. D Ravinder, a former vice-chancellor of Osmania University.

Telangana universities drop quality

The low priority accorded to the state-run universities has nudged Telangana to the bottom among the south India states. With only two universities, the Hyderabad Central University and the state-run Osmania University, finding a place among the top 100 universities in the country, Telangana emerged as the poor performer in south India.

While Tamil Nadu has 18 universities in the top 100, Karnataka stood second with 11 universities. Andhra Pradesh and Kerala have five and four universities respectively in the coveted list prepared jointly the National Board of Accreditation (NBA) and the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) for 2024.

All-round mess

Though Osmania University, one of the oldest in India, did figure in the top 100, its rank has fallen from 36 to 43. The performance of another important institution, Kakatiya University in Warangal, is dismal.

According to Dr Thirunahari Seshu, a faculty member from Kakatiya University, the poor showing in the ranking is the result of decade-long disregard shown towards the state-run universities.

“All 108 state-run universities are plagued by the absence of regular vice-chancellors, non-filling of academic vacancies, inadequate budgetary support, poor hostel conditions, and the inability to catch up with the times. Many universities were established before the formation of Telangana. Unfortunately, the deterioration of state-run universities has begun with the formation of Telangana state,” Seshu, who teaches economics at Kakatiya University, told The Federal.

Vacancies galore

A former vice-chancellor of Osmania University felt that that government appears to have withdrawn from higher education. In his view, a mere appointment of a regular vice-chancellor is not sufficient to improve the standards of a university unless it is coupled with budgetary support.

Talking about the pathetic condition of Hyderabad-based Osmania University, regarded as vanguard of the statehood movement, he said the university had been functioning with 800 vacancies.

Meagre financial resources

“Of the 1,250 teaching posts, only 360 are of regular staff. There has been no recruitment since 2013. Consequently, not only the quality of teaching, even that of research has taken a beating. A guide is supervising as many as 18 research scholars. Some scholars are not able to complete their research even in 10 years. Budgetary support has been drastically cut. While the university's requirement is Rs 750 crore, what was allocated was a meagre Rs 463 crore, which means a deficit of 300 crore. The fall in the rank from 36 to 43 is no surprise given the discouraging attitude of the government towards universities,” he said.

Recently, the state government has constituted a Telangana Education Commission with a former IAS officer, Akunuru Murali, as chairman with a view to prepare a comprehensive education policy. But the move failed to enthuse the academia as governments tend to ignore reports of such commissions if they do not seem to serve the interests of the ruling parties.

Lacking recruitment policy

In January 2024, the government invited applications for the post of vice-chancellors. More than 1,400 applications were received. The process allegedly has got stuck in caste calculations.

But a member of a search committee for a major university told The Federal that he had not received the list of eligible applicants. “The short list is to be prepared by the Department of Higher Education. We will scrutinize once we receive the list,” said the member, a former vice-chancellor.