CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu Physical Education and Sports University in Chennai is proving to be a late bloomer. The State’s lone dedicated university for this domain, which was established in 2005, has woken up from a long slumber and is teeming with excitement at major projects set to take off.
However, there are aspects which have to be addressed to ensure the newfound enthusiasm doesn’t die down.
After moving to the sprawling campus in Melakottaiyur, along the Vandalur-Kelambakkam Road, in 2011 from the rented buildings in EVK Sampath Building in Nungambakkam, staff members said they expected the fortunes of the then-struggling university to immediately improve.
“A dedicated sports university without grounds of its own was depressing. So we were grateful when we shifted to the 125-acre-Melakottaiyur Campus. But the distance from the city was definitely an issue,” said P Rajinikumar, assistant professor, Department of Exercise Physiology and Biomechanics, explaining the first few years after moving into the new campus were fairly silent.
However, after taking a few small strides in recent years towards setting up a state-of-the-art sports university by building an indoor stadium and an extensive e-library, the University is all set to get facilities which will allow the university to host a wide spectrum of top athletes and pave way for research and development.
A lavish hostel exclusively for guests is under construction courtesy the State Government and the university believes this will allow it host top athletes from across the country. “The hostel is being designed to host the athletes’ coaches and families for extended stays. It will also have a separate mess,” said a senior professor, explaining, it will allow for knowledge transfer between the staff, athletes, and students.
The largest biomechanical laboratory in the country, for which construction has begun, is the primary lure the university has to bring top athletes to the campus. “Athletes and sportspersons cannot achieve their best results without biomechanical analysis. While the west is utilizing technology to reap benefits, India is far behind,” said assistant professor Rajinikumar, whose brainchild the project is.
The 46x35 feet enclosure will boast of a staggering 21 infrared cameras, a multipurpose synthetic area, isokinetic machines, 16 force plates and pressure map treadmills and two large screens for real time viewing to allow for a comprehensive analysis of posture and muscle use. “The biomechanical laboratory will also have an auditorium and classrooms on the first floor to introduces newcomers to these concepts,” said Rajinikumar.
The university is all set to get a synthetic athletic track and a hockey turf under the Central Government’s Khelo India initiative, to enable it to host sporting events. It is learnt that the State government is also funding badminton and table tennis academies on the campus. “All these projects are set to kick off soon with the funds being approved,” said Vice-Chancellor Sheila Stephen.
Shortage of staff
While the new projects are welcome, the university requires a full staff to comprehensively reap the benefits of these people-intensive facilities that are in various stages of development. It is learnt that there are 22 teaching staff vacancies.
“These new facilities will require additional staff to operate them effectively,” said a senior professor from the Advanced Sports Coaching Department, explaining how academics has taken a hit because of the staff vacancies.
“There are more than 500 students in the campus and sometimes, one professor is forced to handle undergraduate, post graduate and doctoral programs of a department,” the senior professor said.
Students don’t seem to mind the teaching staff shortage as much as they mind the shortage of groundsmen. “Since we are training to become physical education teachers and there are very few groundsmen, we are asked to draw boundary lines ourselves,” said a student from Tirunelveli.
When contacted regarding this issue, Vice-Chancellor Stephen said that there had been a hiring freeze because of a court case. “We are taking steps to fill the vacancies as soon as possible. Out of the 22, 12 are core positions which we are looking to fill immediately,” she said.
No UGC funding under section 12b
In addition to limitations it would impose on usage of facilities and affect academics of students, the shortage of staff has also affected University Grants Commission funding. A full staff is one of the requirements UGC demanded in 2017 to certify the TNPESU for central funding and the university tried to qualify by combining departments, which brought the total number of departments from eight to five.
“Even this was not enough to conform with the UGC requirements for availing funds under section 12b,” said a senior staff member, claiming that the university’s dilly-dallying in filling up vacancies can stem large scale funding and hamper longtime growth of the university.
UGC grants are in the range of Rs 100 crore and are easier to avail than Stage government funding through schemes such as Tamil Nadu Innovative Initiatives Scheme that require detailed proposals and bureaucratic interest.
“We are working towards being recognised by UGC for funding under section 12b so that a comprehensive and large-scale improvement of facilities, infrastructure and technology is possible,” said Stephen, assuring that the ‘vacancy lacuna’ will soon be overcome.
Sports scholarships
Though the TNPESU’s primary goal is to improve research in areas of sports science and coaching, the management said that the university can benefit from having top notch in-house athletes. “While one section of students can boost performance, the other section can help them by applying various tools at their disposal,” said Rajinikumar.
In order to encourage top athletes to join the university, the TNPESU has come out with monetary benefits and scholarships from this academic year.
Students who have secured gold, silver and bronze in either all-India university-level competitions or national-level competitions will receive 100, 75, 60 per cent scholarships for their course. The university has also announced cash prizes for making the podium at all-India university-level competitions representing the State. While first prize winners will receive a sum of `30,000, second and third prize winners will receive `10,000 and `7,000 respectively.
Departments in University
Department of Physical Education
Department of Yoga
Department of Exercise Physiology and Biomechanics
Department of Sports Psychology and Sports Management
Department of Advanced Sports Coaching and Sports Technology
Courses offered BSc, MSc, M Phil, PhD