With Bangalore University on the verge of trifurcation, academics, professors and officials of the Higher Education Department on Friday deliberated on the fate of the University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering (UVCE).
Autonomy status?
A section of officials were for the UVCE — which would enter its centenary year next year — to be given autonomy and continue to function from the K.R. Circle campus. The institute, which has about 4,500 students, runs from two locations. While four departments are located at the K.R. Circle building, two departments (civil engineering and architecture) function from the Bangalore University’s Jnana Bharathi campus.
Several members argued at the meeting that these two departments be moved to K.R. Circle campus. Another section of officials, who were part of the parent Bangalore University, said they would protest this move.
According to sources who attended the meeting, the authorities said that while they would strive to ensure that the institute gets autonomy, for now it will continue to remain with Bangalore Central University for all practical purposes. “We unanimously agreed that the UVCE campus should not move out of K.R. Circle. It has a rich heritage and legacy as it was started by Sir M. Visvesvaraya. If the two other universities want, they can be allowed to start engineering courses,” an official said.
Once the UVCE becomes part of the Bengaluru Central University, other universities — Bangalore University and Bangalore North University — are planning to establish their own engineering colleges. “But that may not be a feasible option ... so we will ask them to first set up departments and offer engineering courses and then decide if they can function as engineering colleges,” a senior official in the state Higher Education Department said.
