BU trifurcation: Lecturers to get option to choose varsity

‘Only permanent faculty members and not guest faculty to be given the option’

Lecturers are now juggling between the two campuses of Bangalore University — Jnana Bharathi and Central College.

Lecturers juggling between two campuses of Bangalore University — Jnana Bharathi and Central College — may soon get some relief as they will be given the option of choosing which university they want to be a part of once the trifurcation is officially implemented.

Sources in the Higher Education Department said the option of whether lecturers want to be a part of Bangalore University, Bangalore Central University or Bangalore North University will be open only to permanent faculty members and not to the guest faculty.

“While we are open to giving faculty members the option of choosing which of the three universities they want to work under, it will also depend if the departments they are attached to exist in the new universities,” an Higher Education Department official said.

However, an official of Bangalore University said there was a need for the State government to think through the move carefully.

“We have a shortage of faculty members and not all of our sanctioned posts are filled. If we give faculty members the option of which university they want to be a part of, students studying in the parent university may suffer,” the official said.

M. Ramachandra Gowda, president of the Federation of University College Teachers’ Associations Karnataka, said it was inevitable for the State government to offer this choice as five departments — Chemistry, Mathematics, Commerce, Management, and Communication — are functioning on both the Jnana Bharathi and Central College campuses.

“In the past, too, when universities in Karanataka have been spilt, faculty members were given a choice. If there is a shortage of teaching staff, individual universities must make arrangements to recruit new faculty members,” he said.