The Hindu : Azhikode laments condition of varsities

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jun 08, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Kerala-Thiruvananthapuram

Azhikode laments condition of varsities

By Our Staff Reporter

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM June 7. Recent trends in the education sector have led one to fear whether, like the loss-making Public Sector Undertakings, the State's universities too are up for sale, Sukumar Azhikode, critic, has said.

He was inaugurating a discussion on the proposed Unified Universities Bill organised by the Kerala University Union at the Students' Centre here today.

No one need be surprised if tomorrow, the University of Kerala goes up for sale. At a time when people were thinking that the state of universities cannot be worse than what they are today, the Government has proved that there can indeed be new depths of degeneration for universities.

Even in times of ancient India, it was universities such as Nalanda and Takshashila which attracted visitors from all over the world and earned respect of the changing ruling dynasties of neighbouring kingdoms. No king decided who taught what at these universities. The universities are playing fields of opposing ideas and their autonomy should be protected.

This does not mean that the varsities can do anything that they want. There should be financial accountability at these centres of higher learning. It has been pointed out long ago that what is happening in the universities is not education but `miseducation'. Instead of an atmosphere of intellectualism there exists a culture of violence in the varsities, Dr. Azhikode said.

In his address, the former Vice-Chancellor of the Mahatma Gandhi University, A. Sukumaran Nair, said administering a university is not like running a Government department. There cannot be a bureaucratic approach to running a university. The real problem here is that there has been no student-centric reform in any universities, he said.

Speaking at the occasion, the former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Kerala, G. Balamohan Thampi, said the new Bill gives powers to the Education Minister to call for all the files in a university. This clause should immediately be withdrawn. The provision for nominations to the highest councils of the varsities may result in people with next to no intellectual calibre getting nominated, he added.

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