A new campus, new staff, an affiliation process, and the most important of all – huge funds for all this. The government was confident when it fast-tracked the long-pending process of dividing Bangalore University (BU) into three, but what lies ahead is a multitude of tasks, the primary one being getting the Governor’s assent to the proposal.
While the new universities will feel the usual birth pangs, the existing university is faced with the prospect of losing a significant portion of funding, more than half its affiliated colleges and most significantly, its prized possession, the Central College campus.
Though BU is not new to this, what with the Tumkur University being carved out of it as recently as 2004, sources say BU officials are miffed with how they were not even consulted before the final announcement was made.
“The parent university was not taken into confidence. BU is going to get only one-third of the part of affiliation and processing fee that comprises its funding.
The government may not give additional grants. The developmental grants were increased from Rs. 50 lakh to Rs. 1 crore, which is meagre when we look at the expenses,” sources said.
In addition, some also see the move to make one new university function out of Central College as being an easy way out of identifying new land and beginning a new campus. Here too though, the existing departments of BU will have to be shifted out of the Central College campus, which may also take time, they say.
As for the Kolar campus, which has to be built from scratch, investment of enormous proportions will be required.
The sources say that 200 acres of government land has been identified, while plans are on to purchase 200 acres more for about Rs. 60 crore. “If land is in place, everything else falls into place automatically,” they said.
