S.R. Niranjana has taken over charge as the new Vice-Chancellor of Gulbarga University at a time when the University is besotted with numerous problems including the failure to get renewal of NAAC accreditation, large-scale shortage of teaching and non-teaching staff and severe shortfall in the infrastructure facilities in all the departments, affecting the academic activities of the University.
The accreditation, which lapsed in early 2014, has not been renewed at a time when NAAC accreditation has been made mandatory for getting grants from the Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) and other Central institutions. Already, Gulbarga University is at the receiving end with the denial of Rs. 10 crore by the RUSA for non-renewal of accreditation.
“I have come with an open mind for improving the academic standards and upscaling the research activities in the University and I know the limitations faced by it now due to the large-scale vacancies of teachers and how the non-extension of the NAAC accreditation has affected the University…”, said Prof. Niranjana.
Committee formedIn an interview to The Hindu , he said that his first task would be to get the NAAC accreditation. “We have made rapid steps towards getting the accreditation renewed by appointing the Academic and Administrative Audit (AAA) committee, which is mandatory for the purpose. The AAA headed by T.C. Shivashankaramurthy, Professor, has submitted its draft report and is likely to submit its final report within a week.”
After fulfilling all the recommendations made by the AAA and self-assessment by the teaching staff, the University would publish the self-study report in the public domain on the university website, which is also mandatory for accreditation. Later the NAAC would send its team to assess the performance of the University. “The University during its earlier assessment was given ‘B’ grade and my endeavour is to get at least ‘A’ grade accreditation”.
Prof. Niranjana said that his next big task would be to fill up all the teaching and non-teaching posts and pointed out that after 1995 the University has not taken up recruitment. Out of the total 249 teaching posts, 145 were vacant; out of the 706 non-teaching posts, 332 were vacant. As a first measure 53 teaching posts were being filled up immediately and after getting the permission from the government the remaining posts would also be filled up.
