An audit report has found fault with the University of Calicut for delaying allocation of grants to the tune of ₹4.5 crore meant for students from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Class categories in university departments.
The report for the year 2018-19 came up for discussion at a meeting of the Senate held on Thursday. It was pointed out that though the government had released the grants to the university, it had not been released owing to the incompetence of the office staff. The audit report took serious note of the fact that ₹1.8 crore excess fee had been charged from students who registered with the School of Distance Education.
The report said that the university departments were not following the workload provisions for teachers laid out by the University Grants Commission and the State Government. Many research students were not completing their research on time though they were getting the fellowship regularly. There were students who have not submitted their thesis even after 10 years. A sum of ₹45 lakh had been allocated as fellowship in the audit period. A remark by Vice Chancellor M.K. Jayaraj that no university in Kerala was following reservation norms in PhD admissions was objected to by the members.
Meanwhile, the Senate entrusted Mr. Jayaraj to ensure that undergraduate exams are held and results published on time by relaxing the procedures and not compromising on academic values. Third, fourth, fifth, and sixth semester exams of the 2019 batch are still pending. The effort is to declare the results by May. Both the Pareeksha Bhavan officials and evaluating teachers would have to slog if so many exams are held simultaneously. A submission on the issue was raised at the meeting by Vinod N. Neekkampurath and T. Mohammedali. A majority of the members pointed out that skipping the exams or granting marks after taking the average of previous exams would be akin to compromising on academic values. This would affect the future of the students as well, they said.
Mr. Jayaraj would take a call on relaxing the procedures related to exam duty and evaluation of answer scripts. K.K. Haneefa, Syndicate member, described the preparations being done by the university ahead of the grading by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council. A special meeting of the Syndicate would be held on November 8 to discuss the issue.
