Private university bill is inevitable and it will be passed shortly. Instead of thinking negatively, State-run universities should take it up as a challenge and compete with private universities, according to Andhra University Vice-Chancellor G. Nageswara Rao. He was addressing a seminar on the private university bill and its impact on State-run universities organised by the All Universities Non-Teaching Employees’ Association here on Wednesday.
He pointed out that a student’s decision to join a private university or a government university depends on the functioning of the university, and hence the State-run universities should gear up to rise to the standard of the private universities. “We cannot remain to be complacent, and our approach and outlook should change,” said Prof. Nageswara Rao.
Govt. support
On the support from the Government, he assured the non-teaching staff that the block grants, which mainly takes care of the salary and welfare commitment of the universities, would continue.
Taking a cue from the Vice-Chancellor of AU, Vice-Chairman of Andhra Pradesh State Council of Higher Education Vijay Prakash pointed out that quality was the buzzword and the State-run universities should gear up to better the quality.
“In AP we have four old universities, six new ones and about three technological universities. The government has already received confirmation from five new private universities and it addition a few deemed universities already exist. Competition will better the quality and we do not see the advent of private universities as a threat. Twenty-two out of 29 States have cleared the private university bill,” he said.
Registrar of AU V. Umamaheswara Rao said that the government should revisit the 1993 order that imposed ban on recruitment of non-teaching staff. Temporary and casual employees should be regularised in phases, he added.
Association general secretary V. Koti Reddy said that apart from the government removing the ban on recruitment, the university employees should be issued health cards on par with other government employees.
Association president P.K. Subramanyam and VC of Damodaram Sanjivayya National Law University (DSNLU) V. Kesava Rao spoke.
