Govt to soon decide on ownership of UVCE

The tussle over the ownership of the 102-year-old Visvesvaraya College of Engineering (UVCE), in all its likelihood, will be resolved in a couple of days with the expert committee headed by former chief secretary of Karnataka S V Ranganath submitting its final report to the government in the next three days.

The second and final meeting of the committee was held in Bengaluru on Tuesday evening, involving the vice-chancellors of both Bangalore University (BU) and Bangalore Central University (BCU) along with the vice-chancellor of Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) and the principal of UVCE.

Sources privy to the meeting told DH that both BU and BCU authorities have submitted detailed plans before the committee seeking ownership of the century-old college. “While the BU has called for unitary university status, the BCU has suggested bifurcation of the college,” revealed an official.

Surprisingly, VTU Vice-Chancellor Prof Karisiddappa objected to the plans citing the act of VTU that does not allow any university to start a new engineering college. He also brought to the notice of the committee that even if the college were to be transferred to VTU, the act needs to be amended.

A senior BU official told DH that until further decisions, the BU is given all control over the college. “We have demanded unitary university status to UVCE and until then, it shall remain with us. The admission for 2019-20 shall also be done through BU as the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) inspected the college under BU and recommended renewal of affiliation,” a BU official stated.

The committee, following the absence of director, Technical Education Department, deputy secretary, Higher Education Department, during the meeting, decided to seek their opinion and submit a final report to the state government.

The rift

The state government had constituted an expert committee a few months ago following the rift between BU and BCU over the ownership of UVCE. Even the earlier orders issued by the government were not clear, as the Kori committee said UVCE should remain with BU and another recent communication from higher education department to BCU mentioned that UVCE belongs to BCU based on geographical jurisdiction.