While awarding a ‘B’ grade to the University of Calicut in 2010, the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) noted that it suffers from several institutional weaknesses: lack of state-of-the-art equipment, inadequate classroom infrastructure, poor co-ordination between departments and inadequate faculty. This also holds true for other universities in the state.
In some of the universities, around 25-50 per cent of permanent teaching posts have been lying vacant for years. Thanks to an acute financial crunch, the universities have almost stopped making new appointments, especially to teaching positions.
“The standard of higher education in the state is showing a downward trend. If you want to maintain a certain quality in education, the first thing you should ensure is the quality of the teaching faculty,” said Lopez Mathew, executive member, Kerala State Higher Education Council.At Cusat, teaching posts were notified in 2009, but no appointments have been made so far. “There are even instances when the employees of some varsities were paid their monthly salaries after diverting money from the Provident Fund,” he said.
Said Calicut University vice-chancellor M Abdul Salam: “This is not the first time we have been facing a funds crunch. We need around Rs 135 crore for salaries and pensions alone, whereas the government aid is only Rs 80 crore.