All eyes on new chancellor for streamlining Bihar’s higher education system | Patna News – Times of India
Patna: Arif Mohammed Khan, who took oath as the 42nd governor of Bihar here on Thursday, will have some tough tasks at hand as the ex-officio chancellor of the state universities in streamlining the higher education system of the state.
Despite some recent attempts made by his predecessor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar and the Bihar govt, the state universities are way behind their counterparts in other states as far as their academic performance at the national level is concerned. Of nearly two dozen universities, not a single state university has so far been accredited with ‘A’ grade by NAAC. And, only 107-year-old Patna University (PU) figures in the list of top 100 institutions as per National Institutional Rankings Framework.
Even as there are 260 constituent colleges in the state, there are very few scholars of even national repute. Research output from these institutions is far from satisfactory and their publications are almost negligible, said academics.
In fact, almost all academic institutions of the state are facing acute scarcity of teachers and non-teaching staff, hampering their academic growth. Thousands of sanctioned posts in different universities are lying vacant for the last several years. Bihar State University Service Commission had advertised more than 4,000 posts of assistant professors in different subjects, but the appointments are yet to be finalized. By the time, these appointments are made, an equal number of posts will fall vacant due to the ongoing superannuation of the existing teachers, felt Patna University Teachers Association president Abhay Kumar.
The new chancellor will have to use his good office in expediting the appointments on all vacant posts of teachers and non-teaching staff so that regular academic activities may be ensured. Besides, he will also have to intervene in the financial conduct of the universities so that academic activities are not hampered due to lack of infrastructural facilities in colleges and postgraduate departments.
Furthermore, the universities will have to be encouraged for getting them accredited by NAAC and seeking development grants from the central and state govts. Quite recently, Patna and LN Mithila universities have been sanctioned Rs 100 crore each under PM-USHA grants. Three other universities and 15 colleges have also been sanctioned handsome grants for research and development activities under this scheme, Kumar added.
The working president of Federation of University Teachers’ Associations of Bihar, Kanhaiya Bahadur Sinha, said that the chancellor would also be required to convince the state govt about the desirability of releasing budgeted grants to the universities on time. At present, irregular release of grants to the universities have been delaying the payments of salary and pension to the teachers and other employees. The university staff must not be punished for the fault of others who fail to submit the utilisation certificates on time, he said.
Patna College’s former principal Nawal Kishor Chaudhary drew the attention of the new chancellor towards the irregular academic sessions of the universities and said that owing to the delayed conduct of examinations and publication of results, many bright students of the state fail to get appointment letters even after getting through national-level competitive examinations. “The chancellor will have to look into the aberrations that have crept in the administrative, academic and financial domains of the state universities to streamline the higher education system. We hope he ensures a healthy relation between the chancellor’s secretariat and education department vis-à-vis the functioning of the universities,” he said.
Despite some recent attempts made by his predecessor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar and the Bihar govt, the state universities are way behind their counterparts in other states as far as their academic performance at the national level is concerned. Of nearly two dozen universities, not a single state university has so far been accredited with ‘A’ grade by NAAC. And, only 107-year-old Patna University (PU) figures in the list of top 100 institutions as per National Institutional Rankings Framework.
Even as there are 260 constituent colleges in the state, there are very few scholars of even national repute. Research output from these institutions is far from satisfactory and their publications are almost negligible, said academics.
In fact, almost all academic institutions of the state are facing acute scarcity of teachers and non-teaching staff, hampering their academic growth. Thousands of sanctioned posts in different universities are lying vacant for the last several years. Bihar State University Service Commission had advertised more than 4,000 posts of assistant professors in different subjects, but the appointments are yet to be finalized. By the time, these appointments are made, an equal number of posts will fall vacant due to the ongoing superannuation of the existing teachers, felt Patna University Teachers Association president Abhay Kumar.
The new chancellor will have to use his good office in expediting the appointments on all vacant posts of teachers and non-teaching staff so that regular academic activities may be ensured. Besides, he will also have to intervene in the financial conduct of the universities so that academic activities are not hampered due to lack of infrastructural facilities in colleges and postgraduate departments.
Furthermore, the universities will have to be encouraged for getting them accredited by NAAC and seeking development grants from the central and state govts. Quite recently, Patna and LN Mithila universities have been sanctioned Rs 100 crore each under PM-USHA grants. Three other universities and 15 colleges have also been sanctioned handsome grants for research and development activities under this scheme, Kumar added.
The working president of Federation of University Teachers’ Associations of Bihar, Kanhaiya Bahadur Sinha, said that the chancellor would also be required to convince the state govt about the desirability of releasing budgeted grants to the universities on time. At present, irregular release of grants to the universities have been delaying the payments of salary and pension to the teachers and other employees. The university staff must not be punished for the fault of others who fail to submit the utilisation certificates on time, he said.
Patna College’s former principal Nawal Kishor Chaudhary drew the attention of the new chancellor towards the irregular academic sessions of the universities and said that owing to the delayed conduct of examinations and publication of results, many bright students of the state fail to get appointment letters even after getting through national-level competitive examinations. “The chancellor will have to look into the aberrations that have crept in the administrative, academic and financial domains of the state universities to streamline the higher education system. We hope he ensures a healthy relation between the chancellor’s secretariat and education department vis-à-vis the functioning of the universities,” he said.
