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No permanent faculty for 10-year-old varsity

BHUBANESWAR: Ten-year-old Utkal University of Culture has achieved a dubious distinction.

Billed as the first and only institution of its kind in India, it is the lone university in the country to run without any permanent faculty. And this deficiency has prompted the University Grants Commission (UGC) to deny the university any recognition and financial assistance.

According to sources in the university, the UGC team, which visited the institution recently, has declined to accord it the much-needed 12-B status - mandatory for release of any grants – for lack of permanent faculty members and lack of infrastructure.

Queries reveal that the university has been set up with just four departments, each managed by a contractual lecturer on payment of Rs.4, 650 per month. Two of them quit later for the poor pay package. Five years later, the authorities added two more departments and recruited 16 faculty members but none could be appointed over allegations of irregularities in the recruitment process.

Even the university authorities did not comply with the instructions of the Governor and the High Court to settle the matter and went for a fresh interview earlier this year for appointment of 19 faculty members. Ironically enough, two of the members of the recruitment committee were applicants for the posts that created fresh controversies over the transparency of the recruitment process, according to the sources.

While no new appointment has been made following petitions to the Governor and the Chief Minister, the university runs with part-time lecturers who are being paid Rs.200 per class, a little over the wage paid to skilled labourers and it has de-motivated the faculty members, the sources say.

Nine months ago, the Board of Management of the University resolved to enhance the salary of the contractual lecturers from Rs.4,650 to Rs.10,000 per month that is yet to be implemented while part-time lecturers are being paid Rs.10,000 per month for reasons best known to the authorities, the sources point out.

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