MYSURU: The state government’s proposal to unify the syllabi of universities across the state has come under sharp criticism from the Forum of Former Vice-Chancellors of Karnataka (FVCK), an apex body of former VCs of prestigious universities. The move, which was revived by Higher Education Minister C N Ashwath Narayan recently, has been a topic of debate among educationists.
Though a panel of nodal officers has been formed for a uniform syllabus, it had hit several roadblocks including the resignation of committee members recently. Mounting their opposition at an interaction here on Friday, FVCK chairman and former University of Mysore VC Dr S N Hegde said the move is against the concept of having universities itself. “It would work against the diversity and autonomy of the universities. In no way it will improve the quality of education,” he said.
He said each university has its expertise and area of focuses based on their region and the specialization of its faculties and added that the uniformity in syllabi would kill the creativity of faculty and thereby impact the quality of education. Instead of unifying the syllabus, the forum demanded the authorities to rectify the gap in the student-teacher ratio of institutions in the state and the UGC guidelines on the same.
At the interaction, they also took a call on attempts to make online education the primary mode of knowledge delivery. Opposing it, former VC of Kashmir and Pondicherry universities, Prof J A K Tareen said a majority of campuses in the state lack high bandwidth internet and other infra needed for it. “Even websites of universities are primitive and none of them have advanced interactive features,” he said.