Degradation of higher education has set in in the government of Karnataka for the last several years. The new Karnataka State Universities Act 2000 was brought to enhance the quality of higher education in the State. One of the major provisions in the Act is to abolish election and nominate, among others, “eminent educationists” to the university bodies. Yet in 2004-05, nominations were made by the government headed by N Dharam Singh as chief minister with D Manjunath as minister for higher education that included non-educationists and even ruling political party functionaries.

It led to protests, the court also came to the rescue of the protesters then. The government had the magnanimity of withdrawing the nominations. But the next government lead by H D Kumaraswamy, with D H Shankaramurthy as minister for higher education sent nominations of people who are not educationists, let alone eminent, at any stretch of imagination.

Gubernatorial might

Subsequently, the governors, who are chancellors of the universities also contributed their might to downgrading higher education in the State. The previous Governor T N Chaturvedi, nominated non-educationists and retired civil servants as members and sometimes even chairman of the search committee for recommending a panel of names to vice chancellorship.

Former chief secretary N Shankaranarayanan was the chairman of the search committee for Karnataka State Open University. The present governor Rameswar Thakur continued his predecessors’ practice. He appointed two retired IAS officers Chiranjeevi Singh as chairman of the search committee for the selection of vice chancellor of Hampi Kannada University and Teresa Bhattacharya for Bijapur Women University.

This Governor went a step further. He even interviewed the selected candidates in the panel recommended by the search committee for the vice chancellor of Mysore University, which was in itself unheard of in the history of universities in the country. After the interview, rejected all the names in the panel recommended by the committee that consisted of former vice chancellors and eminent scientists including Chandrashekara Shetty, the former vice chancellor of Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences, who was the chairman of the committee, and the members included people like Goverdhan Mehta, former Director of Indian Institute of Science,  A M Pathan, vice chancellor of Maulana Azad National Open University (Central University) and also former vice chancellor of Karnatak University and, B S Sharma, former vice chancellor of Kota Open University.

Bungling

The candidates they selected were all senior professors like Dr Chandrashekar, professor of history, Bangalore University, Dr Abdul Rahman, professor of biotechnology, Kuvempu University and Dr Rangappa, professor of chemistry, Mysore University. In fact, the panel of names considered the social justice angle also as envisaged in the Act. It is a totally arbitrary exercise of power on the part of the governor to reject all the names in the panel without assigning any reason.

Such bungling by the chancellor has resulted in several universities not having a regular vice chancellor for several months: It was three and a half months’ delay in the case of Bangalore University, more than three months in Women University and now, Mysore University is without a regular vice chancellor for nearly five months. This is in spite of the fact that the date of ending the tenure of a vice chancellor is known four years in advance! 

Interviewing the recommended candidates for vice chancellorship and rejecting in toto all the three of them is not only unheard of in the annals of the higher education but also a classic instance of exercise of authority without competence in Indian public administration.

It is high time that educationists should rise to protest such misdemeanours on the part of the government so that further damage to higher education in the State is prevented. It is beholden upon us too to expose the lumpen elements in the academia.

(The writer is former vice-chancellor, Bangalore University.)