MADURAI: The Covid-19 outbreak has reportedly pushed Madurai Kamaraj University (MKU) into severe financial crisis, according to sources. It has already sent a letter to the Secretary of Higher Education requesting the release of funds.
An official from MKU told TNIE that the varsity earns the major part of the revenue from Directorate of Distance Education (DDE). But after MKU officials got involved in several malpractices, including the issue of forged certificates, University Grants Commission-Distance Education Board (UGC-DEB) imposed a lot of restrictions on the admission process. This automatically reduced the earnings, he added.
In this backdrop, Covid brought all other sources of income to a halt. Now, activities like PhD, registration, admissions, and the affiliation of new colleges have stopped. Only if the pandemic can be brought under control, MKU can get sufficient income. “Moreover, around 600 staff are drawing their salaries. It is a loss for the varsity. The recruitment process for permanent non-teaching staff is still pending. Once it is done, the State government will pay salaries. Besides, till now salaries of the staff of two government colleges, converted from constituent colleges, have not been reimbursed by the Department of Higher Education," he claimed.
MKU's former syndicate member and former Additional Controller of Examination Professor Srinivasan told TNIE that MKU’s pensioners’ corpus fund was `220 crore in 2005, and now it is below `45 crore. “At present, MKU is meeting the expenses by using this fund. For the past 18 months, the retired staff members are facing problems in getting retirement benefits due to misappropriation of fund,” he alleged.
An official from MKU said that MKU's monthly earnings have reduced to `26 lakh from over `90 lakh. “To meet expenses, we requested the Secretary to the Higher Education Department to release funds as well as reimburse the pending amount,” he said.