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| EDUCATION TRIBUNE |
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Mushrooming colleges
Autonomy to colleges a tall order Campus Notes
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Mushrooming colleges IN a recent judgment, the Punjab and Haryana High Court allowed colleges in the two states to fill their vacant seats that could not be filled earlier as very few students qualified through the test. Admissions were to be made through merit as per the order of the court but seats were auctioned by most colleges. Earlier, only 15 per cent seats were filled under management quota, but now nearly all vacant seats were filled under this quota. Thus, a poor student with merit stood no chance against a well-off student with lower merit. The problem arose because the number of seats offered by 456 colleges in Haryana and 176 in Punjab far exceeded the number of students qualifying for admission to these colleges. In Haryana, against 53,000 seats, only 41,104 students appeared for the test, while 31,000 students appeared for counselling. Office-bearers of the Association of Educational Colleges (self-financing) observed that “self-financing BEd colleges are running into losses as many seats are vacant”. Similar situation arose in Punjab where around 12,000 students qualified against around 21,000 seats. When the matter came up before the court, it observed that “the total number of seats available in these institutions is so large that even when the last candidate who appeared in the common entrance test (CET) for admission is admitted to the course, thousands of seats have remained unfilled”. Thus, the problem arose entirely due to setting up of a large number of institutions in this region. A few years ago, there was a severe shortage of qualified staff due to sudden surge in the number of BEd colleges. Instead of maintaining the quality, the authorities lowered the qualification of lecturers from MEd to BEd while the necessary experience of two years in school was waived off. Catching up with the frenzy, a lot of nursing colleges also sprang up in the region. With merit as a criterion or stricter norms for faculty and infrastructure it would have been difficult for the colleges to survive. AICTE rolled back its norms fixed for nursing colleges. This led to the Indian Nursing Council, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, relaxing the norms for running nursing colleges. Land requirement for running the institute has been reduced. The retiring age of faculty members has been raised to 70 years. What justification can ageing faculty provide for bringing in new ideas with his/her knowledge acquired about four decades back? Even professional institutes run by the government are not better off as government medical colleges in Punjab are under threat of disaffiliation from its parent body, the Medical Council of India, due to lack of adequate staff and weak infrastructural facilities. The government has expressed its inability to comply with the requirements in the near future. Though private colleges ease the job of the state in bringing up new institutes for higher studies, their expansion is not governed by rationality but based on sole motive of profiteering. About such colleges, the National Policy on Education (1986) states that “they do provide financial relief to the government though not to students in providing higher education”. We don’t have much to boast of in the name of higher education barring a handful of institutes. Technical education is in dire straits, as is reflected from the fact that around 16,000 students out of 23,000, spread across semesters of 66 engineering colleges of Punjab Technical University, failed in their mathematics examination. The Principal Secretary, Technical Education, expressed: “It wasn’t due to and outrageously difficult paper. It points to a rather woeful lack of quality of student intake.” Ganesh Natarajan, Chairman, National Association of Software Service Companies (NASSCOM), says: “Out of 20 lakh software professionals pass outs, only 20 per cent are employable. This unchecked proliferation of so-called professional colleges isn’t a great thing.” UGC came up with the Establishment of and Maintenance of Standards in Private Universities Regulations 2003 to regulate private educational institutes laying down the minimum criteria in terms of programme, faculty, infrastructural facilities, financial viability, etc. from time to time by the UGC and other statutory bodies concerned. Only in exceptional circumstances the institution may be permitted to open off-campus centres, subject to the prior approval of the regulating authorities. On the contrary, banners of universities operating beyond their state can be seen luring students by offering them a variety of degrees through teaching shops. Minister of Higher Education in Punjab feels: “The need of the hour is to put in collective efforts to impart quality education.” Definitely, we need more institutes of higher learning to increase student enrollment ratio in higher education. Is this the right way to go? Reckless growth of professional colleges is not the way to make higher education viable, relevant, robust and productive. Rather it will compound the problem. The cure lies with effective regulation and better governance.
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Autonomy to colleges a tall order THE issue of giving autonomy to colleges continues to raise its head time and again. At the principals’ conference held recently in Chandigarh, Panjab University Vice-Chancellor repeated his offer of last year to college principals to introduce autonomy in their colleges ladder-wise and to prepare colleges in a way that they could be ultimately granted deemed university status, in keeping with the latest recommendations of the Knowledge Commission. However, this concept is not a new one, as it was recommended by the Kothari Education Commission way back in 1966, while subsequent commissions and the National Education Policy of 1986 reinforced it. So far, only a few states like Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Orissa have been able to set up autonomous colleges. Universities in other parts of the country, especially in the North, have hardly implemented this step. Therefore, the matter seems to be highly debatable. Dr Sat Prakash, former Vice-Chancellor of Jiwaji University, Gwalior, doubts if any university by itself can make such a general offer to colleges without the prior approval of the UGC. “Only certain colleges falling under the 2F and 12B categories can on their own apply for academic autonomy to the UGC,” he points out. Dr K.S. Saluja, Prinicpal of Government College, Sector-46, Chandigarh, foresees no problem in conducting the BA I examination, evaluating the answer-books and declaring the results at the college level. But he prefers setting of question papers at the university level. Saluja’s colleague Shyam Sunder, dean of college, is certainly against colleges conducting their own examinations, etc. He thinks that maintenance of parity between rural, urban, private and government colleges will be a hard task. “The university seems to be interested only in reducing its burden,” he further argues. M.S. Marwaha, head of physics department of Guru Gobind Singh College, Chandigarh, on the basis of his experience of practical examinations being conducted by Panjab University every year, calls the idea a retrograde step. Near autonomy prevails in these examinations with the university hardly having any direct control over them. Question papers are set at the college level as a formality only and external examiners appointed by the university more often than not don’t turn up. Since the final marks are to be awarded by the class teachers, laboratory work lacks seriousness. When indirect autonomy in practical examinations has resulted in such a dismal state of affairs, to expect quality in direct autonomy will be a far cry. In this context, some pertinent questions that come to mind are: Does requisite infrastructure exist in all colleges, especially in the rural areas? Are sufficient funds available to bring about the necessary modifications? With good number of posts of teachers lying vacant in many colleges, who will perform the function of setting question papers, conducting examinations, evaluating scripts, declaring results, etc., in time? Will teachers be ready to perform these duties in addition to their regular teaching work? Whatever the situation in majority of colleges, there is no denying the fact that there are some colleges in Chandigarh and other cities with potential for conversion into autonomous colleges. The UGC has fixed some criteria for granting autonomy to a college. However, this privilege cannot be permanent and can be revoked if they cannot maintain the desired standard. Still, to establish new autonomous colleges or covert existing colleges into autonomous ones, principals and teachers of these colleges will have to be trained, motivated and provided with adequate financial and other incentives. Even if a few autonomous colleges can be run in this region, it will go a long way in modernising college education.
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Campus
Notes With the creation of the first health sciences university under the name of Pt. B.D.Sharma University of Health Sciences and the formal appointment of Dr S.S. Sangwan as its first Vice-Chancellor, the post of the director of the Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (PGIMS) has fallen vacant. Though Dr Sangwan continues to hold the additional charge of the post, the process for the selection of director has gone underway. While the date of the interview for the post is still to be announced, it is not known whether the government would prefer an insider for the post. According to sources, three names of senior professors of the PGIMS have been forwarded by the university authorities. It may be recalled that the appointment of the director had always been a issue of debate and discussion as whether an internal candidate would be a better choice than an outsider who had hardly any knowledge of the set-up here and the problems faced by the institute, which runs one of the largest hospitals in the region and offers various state-of-the-art medical and treatment facilities. Since the outgoing director was a faculty member of the PGIMS, the chances of appointment of an internal candidate have brightened up, said the sources, adding that the appointment should be made strictly on merit and experience.
Cardiology dept achieves
new heights The cardiology department has achieved new heights under the guidance of Professor K.S. Laller by performing cardiac interventions through the safe radial route by innovating its own technique. The treatment of acute myocardial infarction by primary coronary angioplasty, stenting of complex coronary artery disease, pacemaker implantations, valves ballooning and pediatric interventions were the hallmarks of achievements in the year 2008. While there were breakthrough achievements in arrhythmia and valve surgery, the level-IV complex congenital heart defects TAPVC and DORV were also corrected. Recently, Prof S. S. Lohchab received awards from the American Medical Association and the Cleveland Clinic Foundation for his excellent academic pursuits in the field of atrial fibrillation, mitral valve disease and heart failure.
Digital X-ray machine installed The radiology department of the PGIMS has added the state-of-art machinery to its services. Now, the patients can get their X-ray reports within minutes after the installation of the ultramodern digital X-ray machine. "The machine costing about Rs 2.80 crore is the first of its kind in the state. At present, only well-known health institutes like the AIIMS, Delhi, and the PGI, Chandigarh, are having such a machine," claimed Dr Rohtash Yadav, professor and head of the department. According to Dr Yadav, the machine takes a very little time in disposing hundreds of X-rays at one go, which was not possible earlier and the patients had to wait for hours and even days. It may be recalled that the hospital attend to hundreds of OPD patients daily besides a large number of patients lodged in wards. —
Contributed by Bijendra Ahlawat
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