True, quantity does not necessarily reflect quality. Perhaps the ratio between the two can even be deceptive. Thus, a government opening more universities need not straightaway imply that its education minister is performing exceedingly well. In fact, there can be cases of valuable unsung job. On the occasion of its anniversary issue, edex thought it would not be out of place to gauge performances of the five peninsular states — Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha — and the union territory of Puducherry. The results each state showed was kaleidoscopic, capable of changing your perception if you shuffled inputs and took yet another view. Yet certain definite patterns did emerge. The work to improve higher education is on in all the places — only the pace and direction vary. Educational institutions are burgeoning, though the excellence quotient is not always encouraging. And, yes, the red tape and graft are rather permanent features on the academic year. Here’s a peek:
Wee little, too late
Positives do exist — the recent Universities Amendment Act has prompted the state government to reduce political involvement while appointing vice-chancellors. The governor will now be the deciding authority after a search panel shortlists names of potential VCs based on responses to nation-wide notification.
No PhD programme will anymore be permitted without admission test and interview. Then, there is a cut-off mark to qualify for engineering admission: 50 per cent (45 for reserved category) at intermediate exams. For medical graduates, it is mandatory to practise a year in a rural hospital after MBBS or BDS, thus making them six-year courses from 2010-11.
New colleges
This year, AP got the country’s first women’s minority medical college: Shadan Group’s Dr VRK College (100 MBBS seats) on 33 acres at Aziznagar in Rangareddy district.
Tata Institute of Fundamental Research’s Centre of Excellence, whose foundation stone was laid recently near Hyderabad, is expect to invest Rs 2,500 crore in 10-15 years — and will start functioning from 2013.
IIT-Hyderabad has opened a branch offering 40 seats in civil engineering.
Spawning varsities
Between 2005 and ’09, the government opened nearly 10 universities, but none has proper infrastructure (sometimes even administrative buildings) for want of funds. Half of the state’s 650-plus engineering colleges provide below-par education. Some have students of the just-exited batches as teachers and near-zero research activity.
Controversies
P Kusuma Kumari of Anantpur’s Sri Krishnadevaraya University became the state’s first VC to be sacked while in office, courtesy dubious irregularisation of assistant professors in 2009-10 and failure to conduct executive council meetings.
Rayalaseema and Dravidian Universities recently awarded PhD to more than 10,000 researchers. A probe that followed confirmed suspicions that many varsities had become ‘cheap doctorate shops’. Amid these, the government, citing cash crunch, halved the seats in IIIT to 3,000.
The 2006-launched fee reimbursement and scholarships scheme for SC, ST, BC and EBC students led to bogus educational institutions siphoning off more than Rs 400 crore of government money.
